Azerbaijan Not to Participate in Junior Eurovision in Armenia, Says Armenian Broadcaster

Azerbaijan won’t be participating in the 2011 Junior Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Yerevan, broadcaster Gohar Gasparyan told reporters in the Armenian capital on Tuesday.

As for Armenia’s participation in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Baku, according to Gasparyan, this will become clear in early December.

Earlier, Chair of the Council of Armenian Public Television and Radio Company Alexan Harutyunyan had said that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) was still trying to secure guarantees from Azerbaijan regarding the safety and security of an Armenian delegation.

“Our delegation insisted that we get guarantees from the EBU. We’re now at the stage of those guarantees being secured — it’s possible that we’ll get those guarantees by the meeting in Geneva in December. However, there are several other issues in Baku, not tied to Armenia’s participation,” he said and expressed hope that Azerbaijan will be in a position to host Eurovision and that a decision won’t be made to have the popular song contest elsewhere.

Note, a Sept. 2 statement on the official Eurovision website notes that the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest expressed its confidence in the progress of the preparations. There didn’t seem to be any indication on the part of Eurovision that there were doubts concerning Baku hosting next year’s contest.