Azerbaijani singer faces criticism in homeland because of selfie with Georgian and Armenian nationals
Yet another time Azerbaijani media urge to ‘keep away’ from the Armenians, and even a most insignificant contact with the Armenians is characterized as ‘criminal collaboration against the interests of Azerbaijan.’ Moreover, the cultural representatives who have ever taken a photo with an Armenian and posted the selfie on the social networks are sharply criticized. In this case, Gyunel Mehdi, a journalist, has come up with criticism of her compatriots in the article published on Gundelik Baku newspaper website.
The author reminds that the daughter of the Honored Artist of Azerbaijan Aybeniz Hashimova, Aynishan Guliyeva, has earlier become a target of the Azerbaijanis’ severe criticism for daring to take a photo with an Armenian. The author also mentions the case with Sabina Rahimova - the Azerbaijani representative at song contest New Star 10 – who posted her selfie with the Georgian representative and Armenian, Levon Harutyunyan, in the social network naming it ‘All the Caucasians Together.’
The author accuses Azerbaijani human rights defender Leyla Yunus of an incident that allegedly took place during an event. Yunus changed her seat to move over to the Armenians and the author describes it as ‘traitorous step.’
Mehdi believes that ‘an Armenian cannot be good’ and she urges her compatriots “to avoid the Armenians, never shoot a film with them, not to go to concerts, banquets and events, not to seat next to them or take a photo with the representatives of that nation.”
People's Artist of Azerbaijan Brilliant Dadashova had become an object of severe criticism after the media spread information according to which the singer was honored with Big Apple Music Awards: the award was organized by an Armenian company working in the US.
Earlier, in 2009, a questioning took place in Azerbaijan of everyone who had dared to vote for the Armenian representatives in Eurovision Song Contest. Then the Turkish singer Hadise also became the target of Azerbaijani hysteria because of her brave position concerning the issue of the Armenia-Turkey border opening.
It is also remarkable that the Azerbaijani media write that the recent period has seen an increase of articles and stories about Armenia and the Armenians in the press of the country that contain insults, obscene language and unflattering remarks. In early November 2014, the head of the Department of expertise, programming and analytics of the National Television and Radio Council of Azerbaijan, Tavakyul Dadashev, called on Azerbaijani media to go on using insults in the articles about Armenia as much as possible.
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