Armenian Singer Opposed to Going to Baku But Not Tying Soldier’s Death with Eurovision

Singer Emma Petrosyan considers Armenia’s participation in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku to be absurd. Her position (being opposed to participating in the song contest in Azerbaijan) is not due to the death of an Armenian soldier reportedly killed by an Azerbaijan sniper on Feb. 24 in Tavush, she informed Epress.am on Saturday.

“I was opposed [to participating] since last year, when the contestants from Azerbaijan won the contest and it became known that next year Eurovision would take place in Baku,” she said.

She cites two reasons for her stance: first, Eurovision is not an authoritative (professional, respectable) song contest and not participating in it shouldn’t be viewed peccantly, and second, because the contest is held in “a country that is an enemy of ours”.

“We have prisoners [POWs] in that country; soldiers are killed on the line of contact. [Armenian rock band Dorians frontman] Gor [Sujyan] is a very talented young man; I wish him better contests, but there is the question of security. I’m not saying that all Azeris are our enemies, but generally the atmosphere doesn’t allow us to be assured,” said Petrosyan.

The singer also urged Armenia’s participation in Eurovision not be considered a display of national ambition.

“They say, let’s raise our flag — you know, there’s a thousand and one other places where we have to raise [our] flag” in classical music competitions, many other music competitions, chess, in the area of science. Eurovision shouldn’t be get so much attention. Let them participate next year,” she said.

Recall, on Feb. 23, a group of Armenian artists issued a statement in which they urged Armenia’s Public TV broadcaster to boycott the contest taking place in Baku this year. The statement came on the heels of news that 20-year-old Albert Adibekyan had been killed on the line of contact by an Azerbaijani sniper.

At the same time, Dorians producer Vahagn Gevorgyan, in conversation with Epress.am on Feb. 24 on the matter of Armenia not participating in the contest, said the “saddest part” was that the soldier’s death was connected to Eurovision and that this incident resulted in more uproar than the deaths of other soldiers.

“Not now, but long ago we should’ve reflected on the cause of [these] deaths in the army, who is to blame that soldiers are being killed. Of course, they say, the Azeris, but I don’t think that we don’t have problems within our own army,” he said.

Photo: Youth Online Newspaper