Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia’s Public TV Company expresses regret that it is unable to send a delegation to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to participate in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, according to a statement issued by the state broadcaster today.
“Though Azerbaijan’s authorities promised security guarantees for all participating countries, days earlier Azerbaijan’s president ‘made an exception’ for one of those countries, stating that Azerbaijan’s number one enemy are Armenians around the world. We can factually state that the president of the Eurovision host country officially declares that all Armenians, including those who were to have been included in the Eurovision delegation, are Azerbaijan’s enemies. Consequently, there’s no logic in sending a participant to a country where he will be greeted as an enemy. This for us is a matter of principle,” reads the statement.
The Public TV Company of Armenia is certain that the environment created on the backdrop of such and other anti-Armenian statements and actions cannot ensure equal conditions for all performers participating in Eurovision, which, as the company pictures it, is one of the main components of the contents.
“In the future we will continue to participate in Eurovision and to represent Armenia in this pan-European song contest,” concludes the statement.
Earlier, Contest Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand, on behalf of the European Broadcasting Union, had 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.”