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The Economist: More care should be taken over where to hold
international pageants - Azerbaijan and Eurovision
13:39, 26 May, 2012
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS: The Economist has posted an article on
"Eurovision 2012" international song contest due in Baku. As
Armenpress reports, the article specifically reads:
"ON THE face of it, Ilham Aliev, the president of Azerbaijan, and the
Eurovision Song Contest, held in his country this week, are a good
fit. Eurovision, in which viewers across Europe (broadly defined)
select a winning song from competing national entries, is an annual
festival of kitsch. Mr Aliev's fondness for opulence, his strongman
moustache, and the cult of personality he has built around his father,
Heidar, from whom he inherited his post in 2003, are all suitably
retro. Alas, his regime also has some less amusing traits, which
suggest that the organisers of shindigs like Eurovision should be more
careful about where they are staged.
The story behind the songs is a sad one. Protests against Mr Aliev's
rule, especially after the rigged elections that keep him in power,
are routinely crushed. His critics have been beaten and imprisoned.
Not only do Azerbaijan's human-rights abuses make a grim backdrop to
the clowning of Eurovision: some have been perpetrated on its account.
According to human-rights groups, scores of families have been
forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for a new concert hall.
Absurdly but terrifyingly, in previous Eurovisions Azerbaijanis were
interrogated for voting for Armenia - the Caucasian neighbour with which
Azerbaijan fought a war in the 1990s and may yet fight another. The
lavish cost of the preparations is itself obscene in a place where
many lack basic amenities, despite the gridlock of imported cars in
central Baku, the capital. But then, Azerbaijan scores the full 12
points for corruption.
The wealth of a favoured few in Azerbaijan derives from oil and gas,
pumped out of the Caspian and through a pipeline to Turkey. Along with
the country's sensitive location - between Russia and Iran - the oil helps
explain the West's often indulgent attitude to Mr Aliev. Yet the
indulgence must have a limit. Eurovision should have been beyond it."
international pageants - Azerbaijan and Eurovision
13:39, 26 May, 2012
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS: The Economist has posted an article on
"Eurovision 2012" international song contest due in Baku. As
Armenpress reports, the article specifically reads:
"ON THE face of it, Ilham Aliev, the president of Azerbaijan, and the
Eurovision Song Contest, held in his country this week, are a good
fit. Eurovision, in which viewers across Europe (broadly defined)
select a winning song from competing national entries, is an annual
festival of kitsch. Mr Aliev's fondness for opulence, his strongman
moustache, and the cult of personality he has built around his father,
Heidar, from whom he inherited his post in 2003, are all suitably
retro. Alas, his regime also has some less amusing traits, which
suggest that the organisers of shindigs like Eurovision should be more
careful about where they are staged.
The story behind the songs is a sad one. Protests against Mr Aliev's
rule, especially after the rigged elections that keep him in power,
are routinely crushed. His critics have been beaten and imprisoned.
Not only do Azerbaijan's human-rights abuses make a grim backdrop to
the clowning of Eurovision: some have been perpetrated on its account.
According to human-rights groups, scores of families have been
forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for a new concert hall.
Absurdly but terrifyingly, in previous Eurovisions Azerbaijanis were
interrogated for voting for Armenia - the Caucasian neighbour with which
Azerbaijan fought a war in the 1990s and may yet fight another. The
lavish cost of the preparations is itself obscene in a place where
many lack basic amenities, despite the gridlock of imported cars in
central Baku, the capital. But then, Azerbaijan scores the full 12
points for corruption.
The wealth of a favoured few in Azerbaijan derives from oil and gas,
pumped out of the Caspian and through a pipeline to Turkey. Along with
the country's sensitive location - between Russia and Iran - the oil helps
explain the West's often indulgent attitude to Mr Aliev. Yet the
indulgence must have a limit. Eurovision should have been beyond it."