]]>YEREVAN — An Armenian nongovernmental organization says it will hold an Azerbaijani film festival in Yerevan as part of its efforts to promote Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation.
The Yerevan-based Caucasus Center for Peace Initiatives (CCPR) is organizing the October event with support from the U.S. Embassy in Armenia in an effort to further dialogue on repairing Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
CCPR Chairman Georgi Vanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that “there is a demand for peace — [it is something] that exists in every family but is [currently] frozen†in the region.
Vanian said he and other festival organizers have watched some 50 Azerbaijani movies produced after the Soviet collapse and will select those which they think “will appeal to Armenian society.”
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Forty-three people in Azerbaijan who voted for a song by neighbouring Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest have been questioned by the police.
One man told the BBC he was accused of being unpatriotic and a “potential security threat”, after he sent a text backing Armenia’s song, Jan Jan.
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The BBC’s South Caucasus correspondent, Tom Esslemont, says it is unclear why the Azeri authorities have chosen to call people in for questioning three months after this year’s Eurovision song contest.
Civil rights campaigners say freedom of expression is increasingly suppressed in Azerbaijan under the presidency of Ilham Aliyev.
Through this latest row, some have even accused his government of attempting to provoke tensions with Armenia, 15 years after the war over Nagorno-Karabakh left the two countries scarred and bitterly divided, our correspondent says. link
Quite frankly, this is pathetic and it’s about time similar initiatives such as those by Vanyan are implemented in Azerbaijan. Instead, however, we have police questioning citizens over voting in an international music competition.
It should be pointed pointed out, as I reported on Frontline in May, that the telephone number to vote for Armenia was actually omitted from the Azeri broadcast of Eurovision.
Even so, 43 people apparently worked it out for themselves. Perhaps that’s at least a sign that there could be some hope however much the Azeri authorities attempt to prevent such seeds from being sown.