Azerbaijan: Even more Eurovision stupidity

Music lovers the world over might consider it to be some kind of dumb competition where the most mediocre of talent gets its brief moment of fame, but for tin-pot dictators in the South Caucasus, Eurovision is taken very seriously indeed.

Forget the spirit in which the competition was meant to be held, for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia it’s most definitely not about friendly competition. Instead, it’s about nationalism, and sometimes in the ugliest of forms.

The competition had already got off to a bad start in February when Georgia entered an entry mocking the Russian prime minister, former President Putin, but then Armenia and Azerbaijan soon took the level of animosity to even greater heights with actions that bordered on the infantile. This might be reason enough for many to consider Eurovision as more absurd than it already is, but when the two countries remain in a state of war, even a simple and otherwise mundane song contest takes on a frightening new dimension.

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Rovshan Nasirli was called in for questioning. “They wanted an explanation for why I voted for Armenia. They said it was a matter of national security,” Nasirli told Radio Free Europe. “They were trying to put psychological pressure on me, saying things like, ‘You have no sense of ethnic pride. How come you voted for Armenia?’ They made me write out an explanation, and then they let me go.” Ironically, the 22-year-old added that he voted for Armenia because it sounded “more Azeri” than his own country’s entry.

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