Culture policy

Culture policy

Withdrawal from Eurovision Song Contest 2012 â€“ Armenian propaganda machine accepts defeat â€“ ANALYSIS

Withdrawal from Eurovision Song Contest 2012 â€“ Armenian propaganda machine accepts defeat â€“ <font color=red>ANALYSIS </font>

07 March 2012 15:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vugar Masimoglu â€“ APA. The step taken by Armenia is not a surprise for the persons reasonably assessing the processes, the Public Television of this country has officially announced their withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The position of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which first reacted to this decision, shows that this is not a surprise for the organization. The Contest Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand said: "We are truly disappointed by the broadcaster’s decision to withdraw from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Despite the efforts of the EBU and the Host Broadcaster to ensure a smooth participation for the Armenian delegation in this year’s Contest, circumstances beyond our control lead to this unfortunate decision." What are these circumstances? The problems regarding security? Actually, Jon Ola Sand in his statement indirectly confirmed that these claims are pretexts. The European Broadcasting Union is directly responsible for the security of the delegations participating in the contest, audience, it obtains official security guarantee from the host country, basing on this guarantee passes decision to start the organizational activities. It is up to the EBU to obtain security guarantee, the EBU has obtained this guarantee from the Azerbaijani government and the statement of Jon Ola Sand means that the question of security, which Armenia has been keeping in the focus of attention for a long time, is a pretext, Armenians indeed have passed a decision not to participate in the contest because of the circumstances beyond EBUâ€™s control. What are these circumstances?

In order to answer this question it is necessary to analyze Armeniaâ€™s tactics regarding the participation in this contest. The first question that arose after Azerbaijanâ€™s representatives won in the contest was connected with Armeniaâ€™s participation. While this was unimportant for a European not able to assess the existing realities of the region, it was urgent for the societies of Azerbaijan and Armenia that are under the conditions of active conflict for 24 years. Armenia assessed this urgency from the first day, used the tactics of artificial agiotage around the participation in the contest. The aim was to cast shadow on the achievements (not the material benefits) of Azerbaijan as a host country. It is not accidental that for several months the Armenian propaganda machine has been attempting to attribute to the security problem its hesitation regarding participation in Eurovision, it has been claiming that there is no guarantee for security of the delegation, media representatives, citizens. But these claims were reduced to zero by the Azerbaijani government and the European Broadcasting Union, both sides said the security of all delegations and everyone who will come to Baku to watch the contest will be fully ensured. After it became known that a record number of countries will participate in Eurovision 2012, the security claims of the Armenian propaganda machine failed, though Armenian Public Television postponed the announcement of the final decision, in the end they were obliged to say that they would participate in the contest.

Were the hesitations of Armenia really related to the security problems? Many representatives of this country participated in the international events held in Baku in recent years and no problem occurred on their security. But why do Armenians exaggerate the security problem? The logical result is the following â€“ the only significance of participation for Armenia in Eurovision-2012 is the making anti-Azerbaijan propaganda. The participation of Armenia in the contest has no meaning because they failed this propaganda now. Armenians always made propagandas in all contests. Everybody remembers that the Armenian spectators waved the flag of so-called â€œNagorno Karabakh Republicâ€, included the elements in their show-programs which irritated Azerbaijani and Turkish spectators, the keeping by presenter, who announces the results of the country, the of photo â€œArmenian monumentsâ€ in our occupied lands. But it was known that the Armenians wouldnâ€™t make this propaganda in Baku, because neither Azerbaijan nor the contestâ€™s organizer European Broadcasting Union would have allowed it. Thatâ€™s why itâ€™s obvious that all pretexts for Armenia, the purpose of which is making anti-Azerbaijan propaganda in participation in the contest, have exhausted.

On the other side, Armenians canâ€™t digest the dividends that will be given by this contest to Azerbaijan. Anyhow, Eurovision Song Contest, which is in the top five in the list of contests having the most audiences in the world, will play a great role in introduction of Azerbaijan. According to various calculations, bout 500 mln people watch semi-final and final stages of Eurovision, it means that one of 14 people in the world will obtain information through video tapes and show-program about Azerbaijan, nature, rich culture and music of our country. Eurovision-2012 will bring to naught the groundless imaginations about our country in the West by Armenian propaganda machine. Such contests are the irreplaceable tools for forming the public opinion from the point of view of having the mainstream audience and the West will know Azerbaijan once again through these tools. Thus, the successful usage of chance by Azerbaijan from hosting the Eurovision-2012 also means the first serious defeat of Armenian propaganda machine and Armenian Diaspora.

On the other side, Armeniaâ€™s refusal of participation in Eurovision-2012 at the time when the humanitarian dialogue is brought to the forefront in the negotiations on the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict shows that the claims of Yerevan on â€œnecessity of public diplomacyâ€ were insincere. Both countries (i.e. also Armenia)undertook the commitment on taking mutual steps for formation of mutual confidence atmosphere in the last negotiations held through OSCE Minsk Group, the first step in this direction has been already taken, Azerbaijani and Armenian intellectuals met in Moscow after 4 years and the agreement was achieved for holding such meetings in the future. Eurovision-2012 platform can be considered as the most relevant platform for continuing the dialogue, by refusing the participation in the contest, Armenia showed its â€œsincerityâ€ in the negotiations on the settlement of the conflict.