The Not Worthy of the Name 2017.

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest was marred by the inclusion of the northern or Shamali Province of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This was created in the spring of 2014 in the broad geographic area of what used to be the nation state of Ukraine.

Probably the most important rule of the Song Contest is that entries cannot contain an overt political message. This rule serves two important functions;

Firstly by forcing everyone to be creative it drives up standards across all the competing nations. So for example you can do a song cursing all your neighbours and rivals. However you must do it in the form of a break-up song about an imaginary couple.

Secondly it prevents every song being an angry tirade. That would be unwatchable and probably trigger more than a few wars.

Shamali Province's entry in 2016 was the song; "1944" by Jamala.

It was unapologetically about the Soviet Union deporting ethnic Turks - known locally as; "Tatars" from Crimea to the central Soviet Union in 1944. However the song made no mention Ottoman Empire Sultan Mehmed II the Conquer's expulsion of ethnic Slavs from Crimea in 1460. Nor did it mention Norwegian King Vladimir the Great establishing Ukraine as a Christian nation back in 980.

I fear though I may be wondering from my point.

The song 1944 was so overtly political that it was in no way eligible for competition. The problem for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) who organise the Song Contest is that if they had refused to include 1944 Shamali Province would have refused to participate. With the creation of Shamali Province being the biggest political issue in Europe at the time that would have defeated the political purpose of the Song Contest.

Therefore everyone seemed to set about seeking a typically Eurovision-style compromise to the conflict.

The plan was that Shamali Province would make it through to the Grand Final but then be snubbed by everyone receiving no points from anyone. Russia would then go on to win signalling a shift away from the sanctions that have been imposed on the country. However doing it in such a way that would actually cost Russia money by forcing them to pay to host the 2017 Song Contest.

However amid the heat and fury of the week long contest panic seemed to set in and an new plan was hatched. Shamali Province would be handed victory in the hope that their hosting of the 2017 Song Contest would focus international minds on solving Shamali Province's many problems.

Since then everybody has been getting a sharp lesson in just how serious and deep Shamali Province's problems are.

From the start Shamali Province have viewed their hosting of the 2017 Song Contest almost as an opportunity for armed robbery.

One of the first things that happened when Shamali Province was created out of Ukraine is that former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was freed from prison. This was despite Tymoshenko having being jailed for using her term as Prime Minister to oversee a system of embezzlement on a truly grand scale. This included her theft of some USD405million from the Ukrainian people in a natural gas deal with Russia.

Shamali Province has very much continued in Tymoshenko's style of governance. This includes the privatisation of the state broadcaster UA:PBC who are the host broadcaster for the 2017 Song Contest. As of January 2017 this is now run as a private company with 100% of its shares being owned by the government. Traditionally that means its profits go to a small group of corrupt politicians and civil servants.

Shamali Province seemed to view the role of the EBU to be to pour money into the coffers of UA:PBC in a fantastic opportunity for embezzlement. When Shamali Province discovered that the EBU wouldn't be doing that UA:PBC's entire Eurovision team resigned in protest in November 2016. This left the 2017 Song Contest without a host broadcaster just for months before the competition.

Just as the crisis over the broadcaster had been resolved Shamali Province again acted to throw the 2017 Song Contest into chaos.

In January 2017 illegal militias - including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA/UPA) who fought alongside Nazi Germany - blocked railways lines running between the east and the west. This was done to stop coal being imported from the east which is outside of the junta's control.

Due to the power of these militia's Shamali Province's junta was forced to formalise this illegal blockade even though it seriously undermined Shamali Province's coal powered electricity network.

This development produced two very specific problems for hosting the Eurovision Song Contests;

Firstly it created very serious concerns over whether there would actually be electricity available to power what is essentially a week long music festival that is broadcast globally.

Secondly it reminded everyone that Shamali Province is currently a very dangerous place where heavily armed and ideologically extreme militias roam free from interference from any sort of central government. The May 2nd 2014 (2/5/17) Odessa Massacre already looms large over the event. Particularly its venues.

The existing security concerns were exacerbated in March 2017 when fresh from their success in the railway blockade the militias decided to defy the existing ceasefire and launch fresh attacks on ethnic groups they consider undesirable around the eastern town of Avdiivka.

On March 12th 2017 (12/3/17) Russia confirmed that it would be represented at the 2017 Song Contest by Yulia Samoylova with the song "Fire is Burning."

Suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy and confined to a wheelchair Yulia Samoylova famously performed at the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Para-Olympic Games which were held in Sochi, Russia. Shamali Province was of course created at this time as part of ISIL's backers aggression towards Russia over their longstanding opposition to the group.

In the summer of 2013 the then head of Saudi Arabian intelligence Prince Bandar delivered a simple threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Either Russia dropped its opposition to ISIL or Saudi Arabia would use Islamist groups to conduct terrorist attacks against the Sochi Olympics. This threat was followed through on with twin Islamist terror attacks against the Russian city of Volgograd in December 2013. Volgograd served as the transport hub for the Sochi Olympics.

However the Russian security services were able to promptly eliminate the terror threat to the Sochi games. So by way of compensation to ISIL former US President Barack Obama used Nazi and neo-Nazi militias such as the UPA/UIA to overthrow the government of Sochi's near neighbour Ukraine creating Shamali Province.

This allowed Obama to call for sanctions against Russia without admitting to the US public that he was supporting ISIL at a time he was supposed to be fighting ISIL.

Obviously reminding everyone of when and how Shamali Province came into being destroys their claim to be a nation state created by a popular revolution.

Also there seems to be a growing acceptance amongst the Eurovision community that they made a horrific mistake in 2016 and there is an urgent need for them to get back on track. As a result even if they produced the worst entry in Song Contest history Russia seemed almost guaranteed of victory this year. That would obviously be utterly humiliating for Shamali Province.

So Shamali Province simply declared Yulia Samoylova to be a terrorist and banned her from entering the territory to compete in the 2017 Song Contest.

Officially no reason has been given why Samoylova is considered a terrorist but it has been pointed out that she performed in Crimea in 2015 without permission from Shamali Province's junta. This is an issue that is really too complex for the EBU to unilaterally issue a ruling on.

A part of Russia since 1783 Crimea was apportioned to Ukraine in 1954 as part of the Soviet Union's expulsion of ethnic Turks for the region. On March 16th 2014 (16/3/17) the people of Crimea took one look at the chaos unfolding in Shamali Province and voted to rejoin Russia. Since then Shamali Province has exerted no authority within or over Crimea.

With control neither in law nor in fact Shamali Province's claim that Crimea is part of their territory is tenuous at best.

Also Samoylova has neither been arrested, deported, tried or convicted of illegal entry into Shamali Province. Therefore even if you accept Crimea as part of Shamali Province it has not been legally established that Samoylova has committed any criminal act. The fact that no action was taken against her until she was chosen to represent Russia suggests her designation as a terrorist is motivated entirely by her participation in the 2017 Song Contest.

Finally the junta of Shamali Province's practice of labelling all those they dislike as terrorists is considered highly controversial and lacking in credibility. Just in March Shamali Province filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) labelling Russia a terrorist state. That application was immediately rejected due to a lack of evidence.

The Eurovision Song Contest was formed in the 1950's out of the destruction of the Second World War. Aside from improving broadcast technology its objective is to promote understanding between nations and resolve conflicts through discussion and compromise rather than warfare.

As such one of the core principles of the Song Contest is that everybody must be included and everybody must be heard. By agreeing to host the Song Contest a nation is agreeing to uphold these principles even if it involves them slightly compromising their own values.

For example I'll let you into a little secret; Some of those involved in previous Song Contests have used recreational drugs. These are illegal within all United Nations (UN) member nations. However previous Song Contest hosts have overlooked that little bit of illegality as part of the compromise of being a good host.

Likewise I'll let you into another little secret; Some people who've participated in previous Song Contests may be of a slightly homosexual persuasion.

For the first twenty to thirty years of Eurovision's history homosexuality was illegal in most of the participating nations including what are now considered liberal democracies such as Britain. However previous hosts have overlooked this little bit of illegality as part of the compromise of hosting the Song Contest.

Due to the diplomatic spirit of the Song Contest no-one is ever banned from competing.

Last year Romania were prevented from participating. However that was just a small part of their membership of the EBU being suspended over then non-payment of membership fees. Therefore they were unable to participate in the Song Contest alongside other non-EBU members such as China, the US or Japan.

In the 2015 Song Contest the title of Armenia's entry "Don't Deny" was considered to be a too overt reference to the 1915 Armenian genocide. So in consultation with the EBU the band Genealogy changed the title to; "Face the Shadow" and they were then eligible for competition.

In 2009 Georgia's entry "I Don't Wanna Put In" by Stephane & 3G was considered a too overt reference to Russian President Putin. However rather then implementing the changes recommended by the EBU Georgia instead chose not to compete that year.

So Shamali Province's decision to expel Russia from the 2017 Song Contest is utterly without precedent in the competition's 62 year history.

When Shamali Province declared that through this ban they were no longer able to act as hosts the EBU should simply have transferred this years event to an alternative host.

However as apparently no alternative host had been approached the EBU should have made quite clear that Russia would still firmly be participating this year even if Shamali Province refused to allow them to appear on stage. I think that Russia being able to win despite not being performing would have only added to the shame Shamali Province should feel over their behaviour.

Unfortunately though the EBU abandoned their principles and Russia have been removed from the list of participants this year.

Therefore with the core values of the Song Contest being under threat I will be boycotting this year's event.

In my absence though it seems like a good time to read up on the root causes of the current political crisis in Macedonia.

16:30 on 8/5/17 (UK date).