With just a few days left until the Eurovision Song Contest, BBC Panorama has prepared a film about Azerbaijan to discover the truth about the 2012 host country and its approach to what it has called the world’s most watched non-sporting event.
Reporter Paul Kenyon finds out how the contest has been used as a tool of intimidation.
The film, which lasts 30 minutes, uncovers all the facts that discredit Azerbaijan as a country which earned the right to organize the 2012 contest after its representatives, Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal, won the first place in Germany last year.
According to Kenyon, Azerbaijan has taken advantage of the contest for political ends. He considers Eurovision a chance for the country to sing a song of respectability amid the criticism against its repressive regime. Kenyon recalls the countryթ§Չ-Չ§s hostile attitude to Armeniaթ§Չ-Չ§s 2009 participants, Inga and Anush Arshakyans, noting that Azerbaijan stopped the broadcast as the singers made their entry on the stage. The BBC reporter believes Armenia is not attending this yearթ§Չ-Չ§s contest for security considerations. He has talked to Rovshan Nasril, an ethnic Azerbaijani, who voted for Armenia as a sign of protest against his countryթ§Չ-Չ§s anti-democratic move.
Kenyon has also interviewed Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK Fakhraddin Gurbanov and the organizer of the contest Ingrid Deltenre, to know their opinion about the democracy situation in the country.
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The full film is below.
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