Eurovision Contest background notes
Email from Sir Graham Watson MEP
News reaches me as I write that six out of the seven executive committee
members of our Liberal sister party Musavat in Azerbaijan are now in prison
on political charges. Individual freedoms are being squeezed as the country
prepares for the Eurovision Song Contest. If you would like to join my protest,
please sign my petition at
www.douzepointsforfreedom.eu. [ I have signed! ] Now it is your turn!
Watch the BBC's Panorama on Azerbaijan:
Extracts from various journals on Azerbaijan and its hosting the Eurovision Song Contest
armenia.com
EUROVISION 2012: INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE OF CONTEST IN BAKU INCLUDES
REFERENCES TO ARMENIA PULLOUT
Arts and Culture | 25.05.12 | 13:44
The current Eurovision song contest in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku
has been highlighted by major international media and advocacy groups
not only for its musical value, but also in terms of the oil-rich
South Caucasus nation's human rights record, including its relations
with neighbor Armenia.
Euronews, a Pan-European news television channel, in particular,
reports on the latest arrests in Baku of opponents of President
Ilham Aliyev in Azerbaijan using the occasion of Europe's biggest pop
music contest to get their message across. It says: "For Azerbaijan,
hosting the glitz and glamour of the Eurovision Song Contest was part
of a charm offensive to put the ex-Soviet Republic on the map. But
increased international attention has also led to criticism of the
country's human rights record."
CNN also covers the street protests and clashes "inspired" by
Eurovision and also dwells on the boycott of the contest by Armenia
as part of the political background.
Azerbaijan's politicization of the song contest also became part of
a recent documentary shown by the BBC as part of its Panorama series
that included references to 2009 when Azerbaijan's broadcaster "pulled
the plug" on the performance by an Armenian duet and the country's
national security summoned several people for questioning over their
voting for the Armenia entry.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International's Azerbaijan campaigner Max Tucker,
who is currently in the country's capital Baku writes: "Despite
publicly committing to support free expression in Azerbaijan, the
European Broadcasting Union has maintained a deathly silence on recent
repeated violations of that right. The lack of action by the EBU and
the international community is giving the authorities carte blanche
to continue violently crushing dissent without consequence."
Armenia pulled out of this year's Eurovision contest accusing the
Azerbaijani leadership of having an anti-Armenian stance. The Public
Television of Armenia has not broadcast the two semifinals of the
competition on May 22 and 24. It remains unclear whether H1 will
broadcast the final show on Saturday night. By not broadcasting the
show Armenia risks exclusion from next year's participation in the
popular contest.
AZERBAIJAN: ABUNDANCE OF OIL AND LACK OF FREEDOM - LE MONDE
news.am
May 26, 2012 | 04:53
Armenian News-NEWS.am presents a piece of Guillaume Perrier's article
published in Le Monde:
Azerbaijan, being a country of police dictatorship, is among the press
freedom predator countries. Currently seven reporters are in custody.
On March 4, 2011, several young activists tried to organize a
demonstration in the center of Baku supporting the democratic riots
in the Arab world but the police stopped the demonstration. Several
hundred people who participated in the demonstration were arrested.
The regime fears that such movements will spread throughout the
country.
All the major world powers wish to get the resources of Azerbaijan,
especially Europe, for which the opening of an energy corridor from
the Caspian to the Mediterranean allows to bypass Russia. This project
('Nabucco') is mainly dependent from the gas of Baku. Russia and the
United States also treat the Aliev clan carefully. NATO had planned
to install part of its missile defense shield in Azerbaijan, but then
changed its mind, when Russia opposed the idea.
France is not an exception. The conflict with Armenia which took over
30 thousand lives, continues to remain as a thorn in Aliev's leg. With
its energy revenues Azerbaijan played the card of military deterrence,
wasteful spending funds for the purchase of modern equipment. Baku
regularly threatens Yerevan to restart military operations if Armenia
refuses to leave the occupied territories. It is not a surprise that
Armenia boycotted the Eurovision. Today Azerbaijan's defense budget
equals to the state budget of Armenia.
europeanvoice.com
Azeri-vision
By Jacqueline Hale - Today, 07:45 CET
The EU's misguided pragmatism is encouraging authoritarianism in Azerbaijan.
As Azerbaijan welcomes Eurovision to its Caspian shores this weekend, viewers and visitors should not be taken in by the government's latest glitzy display. More importantly, Azerbaijan, a hydrocarbon-rich state, European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) partner, current member of the UN Security Council, and aspirant host of the 2020 Olympics, needs the EU more than officials in Baku – and Brussels – realise. Insistence on energy dependence – at the cost of European values – has straitjacketed EU foreign policy in the Caspian. The EU has subordinated its broader ENP agenda to the goals of energy security and diversification. Five years on from Azerbaijan's inclusion in the ENP, despite advances in energy co-operation, significant backsliding has occurred around the jointly agreed ENP values agenda, which includes democracy and respect for human rights.
International indexes characterise Azerbaijan as highly corrupt, authoritarian, and generally ‘not free'. While the EU spells out human-rights obligations on paper through its ENP, a parallel agenda is revealed by trips to Baku by José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission's president, and by Günther Oettinger, the European energy commissioner, and a separate memorandum of understanding on energy policy. Amid quiet diplomacy and presidential handholding, the Caspian state's crackdown on independent journalists, human-rights activists, and opposition forces have not been met with any EU censure – in stark contrast to the EU's approach to energy-poor Belarus.
Much of the inconsistency between the EU's ‘values' rhetoric and its actions is driven by official insistence that the EU has ‘no leverage' to push for change. This is both an excuse and a strategic blunder. With 500 million people in its borders, the EU has considerable clout as an energy consumer. Azerbaijan remains a largely undiversified economy, depending on the EU market for its oil (now passing its peak) and for its gas. In 2010, the EU accounted for over 50% of exports from Azerbaijan. Add to this Azerbaijan's geopolitical woes – a still unresolved dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, increasingly poor relations with Iran, and a perceived imbalance (in Armenia's favour) of Russia's relations in the region – and it becomes clear why Brussels and other European capitals have been the targets of aggressive PR and lobbying by the Azeri government.
International indexes characterise Azerbaijan as highly corrupt, authoritarian, and generally ‘not free'. While the EU spells out human-rights obligations on paper through its ENP, a parallel agenda is revealed by trips to Baku by José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission's president, and by Günther Oettinger, the European energy commissioner, and a separate memorandum of understanding on energy policy. Amid quiet diplomacy and presidential handholding, the Caspian state's crackdown on independent journalists, human-rights activists, and opposition forces have not been met with any EU censure – in stark contrast to the EU's approach to energy-poor Belarus.
Much of the inconsistency between the EU's ‘values' rhetoric and its actions is driven by official insistence that the EU has ‘no leverage' to push for change. This is both an excuse and a strategic blunder. With 500 million people in its borders, the EU has considerable clout as an energy consumer. Azerbaijan remains a largely undiversified economy, depending on the EU market for its oil (now passing its peak) and for its gas. In 2010, the EU accounted for over 50% of exports from Azerbaijan. Add to this Azerbaijan's geopolitical woes – a still unresolved dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, increasingly poor relations with Iran, and a perceived imbalance (in Armenia's favour) of Russia's relations in the region – and it becomes clear why Brussels and other European capitals have been the targets of aggressive PR and lobbying by the Azeri government.
Hasanov, the Aliyev aide, blamed the video of Ismayilova and beating of Abbasov on "foreign special services", a commonly used euphemism for Armenia, Azerbaijan's neighbour, with whom it fought a brutal war over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Hasanov likes to remind visitors that Azerbaijan's army remains on full war footing.
Anti-Armenian propaganda and sentiment continues to run high. During the 2009 Eurovision, several Azeris who voted for the Armenian contestant were called in for questioning for posing a "potential security threat" and being "unpatriotic". Armenia is boycotting the contest this year. "Sport and cultural events should not be politicised," Hasanov said.
Mathias Depardon for The Wall Street journal
A family from commemorate the birth of Heydar Aliyev in front of the Heydar Aliyev Palace. Baku Azerbaijan 2012 A family from commemorate the birth of Heydar Aliyev in front of the Heydar Aliyev Palace. Baku Azerbaijan 2012
Ruled for nearly two decades by the late Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB general, and now his son Ilham, Azerbaijan has poured some $100 million into infrastructure ahead of the event—cramming a multiyear development plan for its capital Baku into less than 12 months.
Azerbaijan is the latest former communist country, including Ukraine, Russia and Serbia, to win the right to host the frothy pop extravaganza, but unlike in the other cases, international attention on Azerbaijan's poor human-rights record threatens to damp the impact.
Over the past two months, one investigative journalist, Idrak Abbasov, was hospitalized after being beaten, while a second, Khadija Ismayilova, was threatened with the release of a sex tape, filmed using cameras concealed in her apartment, unless she stopped writing articles investigating the Aliyev family's alleged corruption. The journalists allege that the government is behind the incidents. The government denies those charges and has pledged to investigate.
Activists say hundreds of Baku residents weren't fairly compensated when they were forced to leave their homes in order to make way for construction projects. The government denies that.
Police on Monday briefly detained 10 protesters in central Baku during a march demanding democracy and the government's resignation. A protest in downtown Baku by a local group called "sing for democracy" on Tuesday passed without incident.
Opposition activists, dominated by young Web-savvy university graduates who campaign using social media, have sought to rebrand Azerbaijan's "light your fire" slogan to "fight your liar," in a reference to official corruption. Many activists lament the lack of support from governments in Europe and the U.S. who see Azerbaijan as a stable energy producer and an ally against Iran.
The government, unfamiliar with sharp criticism from its tightly controlled media, initially appeared to have been caught off guard by the criticism. But in recent days, officials have lashed out at critics.
"We know the image and strength of these organizations but they are losing the trust of our society," said Ali Hasanov, head of the public and political issues department at the presidential administration. "Their conclusions do not correspond with the reality" and their statements are "anti-Azeri propaganda," he told a news conference.
Officials say the government is willing to hear criticism but also wants recognition for its achievements and its willingness to open up.
The increasingly bitter political reaction stands in contrast with the festive atmosphere of Azerbaijan's showpiece capital, Baku. The rapid completion of prestige projects has transformed this once-drab Soviet city into a glittering showcase of marble and neon. Workers have expanded a highway to the airport and the seafront boardwalk, which runs along the Caspian Sea. Perched on a hill overlooking the coastal promenade sit the so-called Flame Towers, a $350 million complex with three buildings shaped like flames that at night are illuminated with 100,000 lights showing moving flames or the Azeri flag. In the city's ancient citadel, nightly the silk-road era maiden tower, a signature landmark made of mud brick, has become the canvas for a mesmerizing video art exhibition.
To stage the event, the Aliyev regime last month completed a cavernous, 23,000-seat palace ringed by diamond-shaped glass panels on a pier jutting out into the Caspian Sea, the Baku Crystal Hall.
Across the city are other example's of the government's efforts to project a new image. The government flew in more than 1,000 iconic London taxi cabs to replace the dilapidated unlicensed cars that have plied the city for decades. At Mr. Aliyev's behest, the Baku fleet is deep purple, not traditional black, and drivers are required to wear a uniform of navy slacks and light blue polo shirt.
In the evenings, crowds of Azeris, as if seeking confirmation of the pace of change, gather at big screens along the capital's promenades to watch glossy advertisements promoting the Eurovision contest and trumpeting the city's transformation.
"I can't recognize the city anymore, but the way it looks now makes me proud," said Rasul Huseynov, a 32-year-old engineer watching the screen with his two sons, one of whom was draped in an Azeri flag. "We all want to be a part of this and show the world that we're a serious country."
That message is one Azerbaijan's rulers hope will lure tourists and foreign investment and strengthen the country's influence in one of the world's key energy corridors. At least 100 million people are expected to watch the contest, which pitches pop acts from more than 40 nations against one another in a flamboyant battle of the bands.
The politics of the song contest have also reverberated around Azerbaijan's fraught region.
Baku's neighbor Iran on Tuesday recalled its ambassador for consultations after some of the Islamic Republic's clerics and lawmakers criticized Azerbaijan's hosting of the contest, calling it a "gay parade."
In March, neighbor Armenia, with whom Azerbaijan is still at war over a disputed territory, pulled out of the competition, citing the death of an Armenian soldier from an Azeri sniper attack. Baku countered that Armenia had staged the killing to provoke a domestic crisis that could benefit the ruling party in national elections.
Although opposition activists have successfully promoted their message of discontent, most Azeris see Eurovision as a holiday and a badge of national pride.
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