The final of a music competition in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, has turned into a local political circus. It was enough for Azerbaijani singer Samira Efendi to hug Armenian participant Saro Gevorgyan for Facebook to \u201cerupt,\u201d reports vestibaku.com.<\/p>\n
The incident concerns a moment in the Silk Way Star competition where Efendi gave the participant representing Armenia the maximum 12 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the most conspicuous reaction came from notorious scandalist Akif Nagi, who staged a true hysterical performance on his page,\u201d vestibaku.com notes.<\/p>\n
Nagi previously led the so-called \u201cKarabakh Liberation Organization,\u201d whose activities involved hysterical acts concerning visits of Armenians to Azerbaijani capital Baku.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile [Azerbaijani] President Ilham Aliyev consistently promotes the line of peace, dialogue, and post-conflict resolution [with Armenians], Nagi behaves as if he is the last bastion of war, and the artists\u2019 hug is a threat to [Azerbaijani] national security. It turns out that Nagi publicly attacks not only the [aforesaid Azerbaijani] singer, but also the idea of Azerbaijani peaceful politics. Following his logic, cultural contact [with Armenians] is a crime, and any display of goodwill [towards Armenians] is an occasion for lynching,\u201d adds vestibaku.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the concert, everything looked clear and professional. Samira, as a member of the panel of judges, awarded the Armenian performer the maximum 12 points and warmly hugged him during the announcement of results. No political statements, no symbols; a normal gesture among artists participating in an international show. But for Akif Nagi, this was enough to denigrate the [Azerbaijani] singer with mud, call her a \u2018traitor,\u2019 devalue her [singing] career, and even cast doubt on her nationality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The final of a music competition in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, has turned into a local political circus. It was enough for Azerbaijani singer Samira Efendi to hug Armenian participant Saro Gevorgyan for Facebook to \u201cerupt,\u201d reports vestibaku.com. The incident concerns a moment in the Silk Way Star competition where Efendi gave the participant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n