· June, 2012

Stories about Azerbaijan from June, 2012

Nagorno Karabakh: Opposition Presidential Candidate Interviewed

  22 June 2012

CivilNet posts a video interview with Vitali Balasanyan [AM/EN], a former military commander and candidate running against the incumbent and defacto president of the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh in an election scheduled for 19 July. Although the vote is not recognized by the international community as legitimate, in another...

Azerbaijan: British Embassy Awards 4,000th Facebook Page Member

  21 June 2012

The British Embassy in Azerbaijan has awarded the 4,000th member of its Facebook page with a certificate and a small prize. With the British Embassy in Armenia and Georgia boasting 1,526 and 2,581 likes respectively at time of writing, the announcement shows how diplomatic missions in the Caucasus are increasingly...

Azerbaijan: Musical Talent on YouTube

  21 June 2012

Gultekin Garadaghly continues to post her own renditions of well-known songs on YouTube, including those from this year's Eurovision Song Contest held in her native Azerbaijan. The young singer living in Baku, who also covers Azerbaijani folk songs, has even been featured in the local press with 1news.az [RU] reporting...

Armenia: Bloggers Criticize Public TV Eurovision Coverage

  21 June 2012

Forced to reluctantly broadcast the final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan, Armenia's Public TV used the occasion to continue the ongoing information and propaganda war against its rival in the region. Some Armenian bloggers respond.

Armenia, Azerbaijan: Spectre of War in the South Caucasus?

  8 June 2012

Following clashes on the Line of Contact (LoC) separating Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, South Caucasus Diary ponders the likelihood of war once again breaking out over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh. Meanwhile, Yerevan-based Armenian-American analyst Richard Giragosian tweets that Azerbaijan's new strategy appears to be reaching operational readiness for...

Armenia, Azerbaijan: Nagorno Karabakh Conflict Resumes… On Twitter

In war, as the old saying goes, the first casualty is always the truth. This is particularly true in the South Caucasus where the media in Armenia and Azerbaijan more often than not spreads misinformation or subjective propaganda concerning the long-running and unresolved conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. On 7 June that was certainly the case on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Azerbaijan: Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator Withdrawn

  7 June 2012

Uncut, an Index on Censorship blog, says that Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator has been withdrawn from a cinema in Baku, the capital of oil-rich Azerbaijan, for ‘technical reasons.’ The blog draws comparisons between the lifestyle and rule of the fictional Admiral General Aladeen and Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev.