Eurovision’s dirty secret – BBC (video)

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 country’s hostile attitude to Armenia’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 year’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 country’s anti-democratic move.
Kenyon has also interviewed the 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. 
The full film is below.  Read more... (242 words)

Israel: Ten Arrested In Organ Trafficking Bust

21:47, May 23, 2012

Israeli police arrested ten people on Tuesday morning on suspicion that they belong to an international organ trafficking ring. They are also suspected of extortion, tax fraud, and inflicting grievous bodily harm. Among the suspects is one doctor.

The Israeli National Fraud Unit and the Tax Authority began a joint undercover investigation into the ring several months ago. In 2009, several countries contacted Israel to request an investigation into organ trafficking on its territory after the discovery of an organ trafficking victim in Kosovo who implicated Israeli citizens. European authorities investigating the Kosovo “Medicus” organ trafficking case provided the names of Israeli suspects they uncovered.  Read more... (241 words)

Knowing the neighbors: Armenia to raise the level of Caucasus studies

The Yerevan State University (YSU) says in the next academic year Caucasus studies will become available for undergraduate students. In launching the course the Caucasus Studies Department of the Faculty of History at YSU considers the importance of studying the language, history and culture of Armenia’s neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan.

Enlarge Photo

Edik Minasyan (l), Hayrapet Margaryan

Dean of the Faculty of History Edik Minasyan told media on Tuesday that in 2011 the faculty admitted eight students for the new specialty. Beginning next September 50 seats will be allocated for bachelors degree studies, with five students to attend the courses without a fee and an additional place to become available for a demobilized army conscript.  Read more... (538 words, 2 images)

Eurovision 2012: Armenia Public TV undecided on whether to show song contest from Baku

The final round of Eurovision 2012, which is to take place in Baku on May 26, might be broadcast by Armenian Public Television as a penalty for the withdrawal in order to secure Armenia’s participation in 2013. The head of the Armenian Delegation to Eurovision Gohar Gasparyan said the decision is not final yet.

Gasparyan said moderators have not yet been selected who would host the event should the popular song-contest be broadcast in Armenia. The Armenian audience can watch but not vote for any of the candidates (Armenia lost that right with the withdrawal).  Read more... (211 words)

Aftershocks: Recent seismic activity in the region remains public concern in Armenia

Dozens of relatively strong quakes and aftershocks that have hit the region in general and Armenia in particular in the past several months have caused anxiety among the population of the landlocked South Caucasus country where many remember the devastation and massive loss of life brought about by a powerful tremor more than two decades ago.

Seismic protection agency specialists, however, do not see reasons for panic, discarding all short-term predictions of a powerful earthquake as false.

Earthquakes in the region (Georgia, Azerbaijan, northern Iran, eastern Turkey) have been more frequent and intense since last October when a destructive magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred near the city of Van in modern-day Turkey. In May alone seismic monitoring agencies have registered about two dozen earthquakes in the region, with seven of them in the territory of Armenia.  Read more... (688 words)

American expert on Karabakh: Don’t believe the myths

President of MIG International Consulting Company Ilya Gerol spoke about the Karabakh conflict at the Russian-Armenian Slovenian University in Yerevan last week.

Gerol started his lecture on Karabakh with a call not to give way to contemporary myths about the situation in Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“You shouldn’t believe the myth that, for example, Azerbaijan is now amazingly rich and has equipped its huge army with Russian and Israeli armaments, and Armenia is fatigued from a long war and isolation, and that under these circumstances Azerbaijan will go for risks fraught with serous cataclysms, ” he said.

Among such cataclysms are Azerbaijan’s potential loss of its investment attractiveness should a new war break out, as well as the real threat to transport of Azeri gas through the three pipelines stretching in immediate proximity to the frontline.  Read more... (474 words)

Azerbaijani police breaks up peaceful opposition rallies, ignores anti-Iranians (video)

The police in Azerbaijan are applying double standards at illegal demonstrations held in the country, the Azerbaijani branch of RFE/RL reports.
 
For breaking up the peaceful rallies of the opposition Public Chamber, the police applies tough measures while in case of anti-Iranian and anti-Armenian rallies it ensures the safety of the protesters, the radio station reports.
 
“The two rallies have taken place during this month, in almost the same site but in the first case, the opposition figures were severely beat and arrested, while in the other cases the police supported the demonstrators. During the rally in front of the Iranian embassy the police even closed the nearby streets to ensure the safety of the protestants,” the media said.
 
“The opposition applied to the municipality for conducting a rally in the support of political prisoners, demanding their release and right to freedom of gatherings but the rally was not allowed. The demonstrations before the Iranian embassy were not licensed either, the organizers even have not applied for getting it,” the RFE/RL reports.
 
Recently a protest rally has been conducted in front of the Iranian embassy to Azerbaijan against “Iran’s pro-Armenian position”. The Azerbaijani young people complained about the “anti-Azerbaijani” stance of Iran, cooperation with Armenia as well as its nuclear programs.
   Read more... (223 words)

Military expert: Armenia’s boycott of Eurovision in Baku is justified

A military expert believes that the refusal of the Armenian delegation to participate in the Eurovision 2012 International Song Contest, scheduled on May 22-26 in Baku, Azerbaijan, is justified, otherwise Armenia’s participation would give a chance to the Aliyev administration to use this international event for propaganda purposes.

“In particular, the scenario is the following: they [Azeris] will attempt to destabilize the situation in the frontline, moreover, not in the Nagorno-Karabakh section of the front but in the northeastern part of Armenia, where areas are densely populated and are located very close to the military bases,” says military psychologist David Jamalyan.  Read more... (316 words)

Russian expert compares Armenian Diaspora with Jewish communities abroad

Sergey Markov, a Russian lawmaker and political analyst, finds the Armenian Diaspora a very powerful tool promoting the country’s development.

In an interview with Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo, he said Armenia’s big international Diaspora is influential enough to be compared with the Jewish communities abroad.

The expert particularly spoke of the country’s economic situation, considering it very serious.

“The small country’s location in a landlocked area adds to that. Very often it depends on the Georgian authorities’ whims,” he said, adding that the strong diaspora appears to be a countermeasure to that.  Read more... (168 words)