AZERBAIJAN: Azerbaijani supporters of Eurovision 2012 Song Contest, to be held this May in Baku, protest Iran's calls for boycotting the event, which they regard as a steps towards integration into Europe and the world values

Record ID: 218203

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN: Azerbaijani supporters of Eurovision 2012 Song Contest, to be held this May in Baku, protest Iran's calls for boycotting the event, which they regard as a steps towards integration into Europe and the world values
  • Date: 11th May 2012
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (MAY 11, 2012) (REUTERS ) PROTESTERS WITH AZERBAIJANI NATIONAL FLAGS AND PICTURES OF IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD AND IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI WALKING ON STREET VARIOUS OF HAND HOLDING FLAGS AND POSTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) GULSEL SEFEROVA, PROTEST PARTICIPANT AND BOARD MEMBER OF YOUTH EUROPEAN MOVEMENT, SAYING: "This is o
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Azerbaijan
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: Entertainment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA554WC73Y5KWAW477L9PLKJMPC
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Azeri Eurovision Song Contest supporters flocked the street on Friday (May 11) outside Iranian Embassy in response to Iran's recent criticism of Azerbaijani authorities, over the rumors that a gay pride will be part of the Eurovision event to be held this May in Baku.
    The Song Contest supporters carrying Azerbaijani national flags, posters with Eurovision 2012 logos as well as pictures of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the countries Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walked through the streets of capital Baku chanting "Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan."
    Singers Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal won the oil-producing state the right to host the annual Eurovision song contest on May 26 by winning the event last year in Germany with their love song "Running Scared".
    "This is our business where to go, how to develop, where to develop. For us, for Azerbaijani youth, is the main thing to integrate into Europe, to integrate the values which the (western) world promotes," Gulsel Seferova, protest participant and board member of "Youth European Movement" organisation told Reuters on the way towards the Iranian Embassy.
    A radical Ansar-Hizbullah group of Iranian city Tabriz, sent and open letter to the Presidents of Iran and Azerbaijan last week ago, blaming the Azeri authorities for "betrayal" of Islamic values and wasting public wealth.
    The group threatened to create problems to Azerbaijan's mission in Tabriz, a town with substantial ethnic Azeri population, if gay parade, ever takes place in Baku.
    The former Soviet mainly Muslim republic, which borders Iran, has friendly ties with the United States and Israel and has experienced increasing tension with Tehran in recent months.
    The Islamic Republic accused Azerbaijan of assisting Israeli intelligence in the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, who was killed when a bomb was attached to his car.
    At least four scientists associated with Iran's nuclear programme have been assassinated since 2010 and a fifth was wounded in a bomb attack.
    "Today Iran calls us for boycotting the Eurovision (Song Contest), which will be held in Azerbaijan. But this is our victory, victory Azerbaijan Republic, victory of one of the Muslim countries of the Eastern world. I think that Iran, the Iranian authorities should have supported us instead of calling for any kind of boycott," University student Khagani Farajev said outside the Iranian Embassy.
    Relations between the two countries worsened in last January after Azerbaijan arrested two men suspected of plotting to attack foreigners, including the Israeli ambassador in Baku and a rabbi. Authorities said the two suspects had been helped by an Iranian linked to Iran's intelligence services, who supplied them with guns and explosives to smuggle from Iran.
    Azeri authorities have also said they thwarted a plan by agents of Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia to set off a car bomb near the Israeli embassy four years ago, and a plot targeting the U.S. and British embassies in 2007.
    Tehran has eyed its neighbour with increasing suspicion because of its growing trade links with Israel. Israel signed a multi-billion-dollar agreement with Azerbaijan last month to supply missile defence hardware and imports more than a quarter of its oil needs from the country.
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