The Still Not Worthy of the Name 2017: Pt.5

This should be read as a continuation of Part 4; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-still-not-worthy-of-name-2017-pt4.html

The Nagorno-Karabakh Region: Armenia and Azerbaijan have long disputed an area of the South Caucasus known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR).

Azerbaijan claim that the NKR is part of their country. However ethnic Armenians living have declared it to be an independent state with the backing of Armenia.

Officially this has dispute has been going on since the 1994 Nagorno-Karabakh War. However many people claim its actually been going on since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the Soviet Union. Something we are currently marking the 100th anniversary of.

The last big outbreak of violence in NKR was what's become known as; "The Four Day War" or; "The April War." This occurred for four days in April 2016.

As a majority Muslim nation Azerbaijan is closely allied to Turkey which is becoming increasingly Islamist under President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As I've mentioned Erdogan is one of the main sponsors of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Russia is a strong opponent of ISIL.

Therefore Erdogan encouraged Azerbaijan to launch an attack on the NKR in order to exert pressure on Russia. Azerbaijan directly borders Russia while Armenia borders Georgia who had their own eight day war during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Russia is actually allied to both Azerbaijan and Armenia so a war between them obviously puts Russia in an extremely difficult position. Erdogan seemed to be under the impression the conflict would lead to more sanctions on Russia as the ongoing conflict in Shamali Province has done.

Occurring just six weeks before the 2016 Song Contest and with Azerbaijan spending months preparing for the war this was obviously a big issue at the 2016 Song Contest.

A element of the lingua franca or "Bridging Language" that emerged at the 2016 Song Contest was the issue of; "The Black Music." This stemmed from a German TV show called "Deutschland 83." In the TV show whether someone was a fan of the black music was used to determine whether they were cool or not. At the Song Contest it was used to signal approval or disapproval of then US President Barack Obama's policies.

Azerbaijan however completely missed the point of this. They instead used the issue of race to launch a ferocious attack on possibly the World's most famous Armenian - Kim Kardashian and her husband Kanye West. The general tone of it was that all Armenians are whores who have sex with filthy niggers and produce ugly mixed race kids.

I don't bring this up again to further insult Azerbaijan. However it is notable just wrong they got it and it may well go down in Eurovision history. So this year they really had to come back with something strong.

Azerbaijan: This year they were represented with the song; "Skeletons" by Dihaj who are a duo made up of Diana Hajiyeva and the unseen Isfar Sarabsky.

Dihaj are genuinely one of the hot up-and-coming bands of Azerbaijan's music scene. In her biography much is made of the fact Diana Hajiyeva graduated from the Baku Music Academy in 2010 to show off her credibility as an artist. It also talks about how she's lived in London, UK performing with Progressive Trance act Looper & Mancus. This shows that not only is she a technically proficient musician she is also cool and underground.

The video in support of the song shows Diana Hajiyeva sitting alone in what resembles a typical rather than traditional British pub. She is wearing a blue Adidas tracksuit top which is the stereotypical uniform of the British white sub-working-class know as; "Chavs."

This seems to be done in reference to a very specific episode from Season 3 of the US TV Show; "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" called; "A Wanted (Inhu)man). This features the British agent "Hunter" travelling to Boston, US to meet up with a gang of gun-runners.

In one very specific scene they meet up in a pub/bar where everyone is dressed in Chavy tracksuits and gold chains, drinking pints and watching an English Premier League (EPL) football game. So although set in Boston, US this scene could easily be taking place in a British city such as Manchester or Liverpool. The gun-runners are obviously intended as a reference to Northern Irish gun-running.

So in this one little detail Azerbaijan have managed to reference the Agents of Shield issue, the Rise of the Robots issue and the Brexit and the Northern Irish question issues. Four issues in one effortless move is a very strong Song Contest play.

The video also features Diana Hajiyeva sporting a black quiff and riding around in a vintage car. This seemed intended as reference to the video to the 2009 song; "Johnny Got a Boom Boom" by Imelda May.

I deployed this video in the aftermath of the January 1st 2017 (1/1/17) terror attack on the Reina Nightclub in Istanbul because it features a copy of the Earnest Hemingway novel; "A Farewell to Arms."

The book is about Hemingway's time as a war reporter during the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War. As with the Republican side during that war the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD) have an International Brigade. Erdogan would very much like to see them say farewell to their arms.

In that context "Skeletons" featuring lyrics such as; "Drum drum drum, bring out the guns, bad boy" and "Fuss and fight won’t get you tons" can be taken in several ways;

You could take it as a sign of support for Erdogan and an insult to people like me and Italy who support the SDF. Alternatively you could take it as an insult to Erdogan for getting Azerbaijan involved in the 2016 April War.

You could also take it as a high of hostility to Armenia. However what struck me as notable about Azerbaijan's entry was the lack of real hostility towards Armenia. 

If Azerbaijan and Armenia didn't show each other at least some hostility at Eurovision the World would probably fall from its axis.

The stage performance saw Diana Hajiyeva - now sporting dyed blonde hair - surrounded by blackboard like walls. On this black issue Azerbaijan proceeded to scribble absolute nonsense.

Diana Hajiyeva was accompanied by a man sitting atop of a very long ladder wearing a black horse's head. I think this was intended as compliment to Kim Kardashian about Kanye West's manhood.

Personally I thought that bordered on the slightly racist. However the black population of Azerbaijan is around zero. So this seemed to be matter of cultural misunderstanding rather than a deliberate attempt to cause offence.

Azerbaijan ended up coming 14th out of 41. They'd put their hands up to their mistake and put a lot of effort into their apology.

Armenia: Between 1915 and 1917 1.5 million Armenians were murdered in a genocide by Ottoman Turkish troops as the Ottoman Empire collapsed around them. As a result of this ethnic cleansing there are now more ethnic Armenians living outside of Armenia then inside Armenia.

Armenia has faced a long battle to have this genocide internationally recognised. Particularly by modern day Turkey. Particularly surrounding the 100th anniversary of the genocide Armenia has used the Song Contest to further this cause.

In fact at the 2014 Song Contest there was a widespread but ultimately failed conspiracy to have the 2015 Song Contest held in Armenia specifically to put pressure on Turkey.

At the 2015 Song Contest many people were prepared to overlook the fact that Armenia's song; "Face The Shadow" came extremely close to breaking the No Overt Politics rule.

Now I firmly support Armenia's efforts to have the genocide recognised. However if you say any word over and over again it tends to lose its meaning. At Eurovision Armenia seemed to be in danger of damaging their own cause by being unable to talk about anything other then the genocide.

So apart from the opening lyric; "Wanna tell a story, About a girl with history" Armenia barely mentioned the genocide with their song this year; "Fly With Me" by Artsvik.

Everything else about Armenia's entry this year screamed support for Russia. 

Artsvik was born in Armenia but moved to Moscow, Russia aged five. She graduated as a speech therapist and child psychologist from Moscow's Pedagogical University. What exactly is wrong with the children running Shamali Province has been quite the issue this year.

As the story goes in 1992 Artsvik saw the film; "The Bodyguard" and fell in love with music of its black star Whitney Houston. This inspired Artsvik to become a singer and she did very well in the 2012 season of; "The Voice of Russia" TV show. 

Artsvik returned to Armenia in 2016 specifically to represent Armenia in the Song Contest.

At the 2016 Song Belarus mocked Shamali Province both over the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and their refusal to adhere to the Minsk Protocol with the song; "Help You To Fly."

Armenia seem to be using their support for Russia and Russia's support for them as a deterrent both to Azerbaijan and their backer Erdogan.  

17:25 on 16/5/17 (UK date)