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Diplomatic Dissonance: Tehran Protests Eurovision 'Gay Parade' in Baku

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Preparations for the first semi-final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday were overshadowed by a diplomatic row between host country Azerbaijan and its neighbor Iran. The latter recalled its ambassador over accusations that Baku was planning an accompanying "gay parade."

The flamboyant, bespangled Eurovision Song Contest's first semi-final whittled down the competition contestants in Baku on Tuesday night, but the pageantry was overshadowed by a diplomatic row. Just ahead of the festivities, Iran summoned the envoy of host country Azerbaijan and announced it had withdrawn its ambassador from Baku to protest "insults to the sanctities" of Islam and the alleged planning of a "gay parade" to accompany the event.

"We heard that the government of Azerbaijan is hosting the international Eurovision Song Contest and that during this contest there will also be a gay parade," senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sobhani said in a statement for the Azeri ambassador quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency. A government official in Baku denied the allegation.

In recent weeks, Iranian officials have admonished Baku for hosting the event, accusing the government of permitting gay pride rallies. While the event, one of the most-watched in the world, is a well-known favorite of the gay community in addition to its general popularity, no such gatherings have been either planned or staged in Baku.

Still, tensions between the two countries are unlikely to be improved by the public reaction to Iran's accusations in Azerbaijan. At a demonstration in Baku participants reportedly carried images of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and banners that read "Azerbaijan does not need clerics -- homosexuals!" » | kla -- with wire reports | Wednesday, May 23, 2012
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Baku Residents Say Eurovision Has Led to Evictions
The Azerbaijani capital Baku will be hosting the final stage of the Eurovision Song contest, but rights activists say the preparations highlight govermnment corruption and human rights abuses. The Azaeri government have spent a record $100m dollars directly on one of the world's longest-running and most widely watched music events, but locals as part of those preparations, they have been forced out of their homes. Rights groups say they have proof that in the past few years, 4000 apartments have been demolished and up to 50,000 people have been evicted across the country . Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman reports from Baku.

Leading Article: A New Age of Uncertainty, with No End in Sight
THE INDEPENDENT: Addressing the Labour Party conference after 9/11, Tony Blair issued this much-quoted rallying cry. "The kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us re-order this world around us." How high-handed those words sound today, and how wrong. The re-ordering he spoke of then entailed two costly wars and little else.

Now, almost a decade on, the geopolitical kaleidoscope has again been shaken. But less than two months from the start of street protests in Tunisia, it is increasingly evident how little power "we" have to reorder anything, even that part of the world immediately around us.

The speed of events is breath-taking. Just in the past week, the Bahraini Royal Family has tried to suppress pro-democracy protests by force, before eventually calling off the troops and proposing talks with the opposition. Demonstrations in Algeria and in Yemen resulted in violent clashes, even as Egyptians resumed their celebrations over the downfall of Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Iran experienced a flurry of new unrest in an echo of the post-election protests 18 months ago. There were marches in Morocco in the west and in Azerbaijan in the east.

But the fiercest confrontations appear to have taken place in the east of Libya, where Colonel Gaddafi is said to have deployed heavy weapons and African mercenaries in an effort to reassert his rule. With what success is not yet apparent, but as many as 200 people are reported dead and hundreds injured, with the country's second city, Benghazi, possibly still under opposition control. Read on and comment >>> | Monday, February 21, 2011

Azerbaijan Victims Tell Blair to Cough Up
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair is under pressure to give to charity a fee of at least £90,000 he was paid for making a speech in Azerbaijan, which is notorious for its human rights abuses.

Tony Blair: His visit was a coup for the country's rulers as his well-known grin beamed out on state television from a press conference to homes throughout the small, oil-rich nation. Photograph: The Telegraph
The former prime minister flew to Azerbaijan where he met the country's president and visited a methanol factory owned by a multi-millionaire businessman.

His visit was a coup for the country's rulers as his well-known grin beamed out on state television from a press conference to homes throughout the small, oil-rich nation.

Now opposition groups and British MPs have complained, that although Mr Blair had every right to visit the country, he missed a golden opportunity to criticise its human rights abuses. They are insisting he should donate his fee to charity.

Earlier this year, David Plouffe, a former senior aide to Barack Obama, was castigated for giving a speech in Azerbaijan - booked through the same Washington-based public speaking agency as Mr Blair. In the wake of the outcry he agreed to hand his fee to a group promoting democracy in the region.

Peter Kilfoyle, a Labour MP who in the mid 1990s helped run Mr Blair's Labour leadership campaign, said: "The very least he can do is donate [h]is fee to a charity that works in the area of human rights.

"He should not be profiting from a country that flagrantly ignores human rights. There have long been questions about the Azeris and their approach to human rights." Tony Blair told by Azerbaijan victims: 'Give your £90,000 speaker's fee to charity' >>> Nick Meo in Baku and Robert Mendick | Sunday, December 13, 2009

Tony Blair Funded by Obscure Oligarch
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any seedier… – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair’s new paymaster is an obscure oligarch with business links to Syria, Iran and Afghanistan, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Nizami Piriyev, left, an Azerbaijan-based millionaire, paid Mr Blair, centre, to fly to Baku. Photograph: The Telegraph
Nizami Piriyev, an Azerbaijan-based millionaire, paid Mr Blair to fly to Baku, the capital, earlier this week to open his new “methanol plant” funded by a British government-backed bank.

The disclosure comes amid growing scrutiny of Mr Blair’s network of private backers, with the Kuwaiti government understood to be one of his biggest financial supporters.

The former prime minister has earned an estimated £14 million since leaving Downing Street in June 2007. He no longer has to disclose the sources of his income.

Westminster watchdogs have raised concerns over the employment of former ministers, including prime ministers, by the private sector after they leave office.

Mr Blair typically charges tens of thousands of pounds simply to give a speech and is therefore thought to have received more than £100,000 for his trip to Azerbaijan.

He made the trip to Baku, his first to the former Soviet bloc country, to open the methanol plant of Azmeco, the Azerbaijan Methanol Company. Mr Blair’s presence as the “special guest” of Mr Piriyev, the company’s chairman, surprised many onlookers. >>> Holly Watt and Robert Winnett | Saturday, December 05, 2009

MAIL ONLINE: Blair, Prince Andrew... and a private meeting in Azerbaijan >>> Ian Gallagher in Baku, Azerbaijan | Saturday, December 05, 2009

L'islam radical se cherche une voie dans la république laïque d'Azerbaïdjan
LE FIGARO: Des centaines de jeunes Azerbaïdjanais sont partis étudier en Arabie saoudite ou chez le grand voisin iranien. Des dizaines de mosquées se sont construites, financées par l'Iran ou les pays arabes du Golfe.

Gamet Souleymanov souffre encore des éclats de grenade incrustés dans son flanc droit. Il y a deux mois, le jeune imam de la mosquée Abou Bakr conduisait la prière quand une grenade jetée par une fenêtre a atterri au milieu des fidèles. «J'ai voulu la couvrir de mon corps, mais je n'en ai pas eu le temps. Mon heure n'était pas venue. Deux personnes ont été tuées.» Barbe courte, souriant et élégant en polo et pantalon noirs, Gamet Souleymanov est le leader d'un mouvement salafiste sunnite. Parti dès l'indépendance étudier au Soudan puis en Arabie saoudite, il cherche à inculquer aux Azerbaïdjanais la vision intégriste de l'islam saoudien. Selon lui, «la moitié des Azerbaïdjanais sont sunnites», contrairement aux estimations qui donnent habituellement 30 % de sunnites, héritage de l'empire ottoman, et 70 % de chiites, à cause de la proximité de l'Iran.

Gamet Souleymanov se dit apolitique, sauf quand il s'agit de dénoncer «les visées de l'Iran, qui veut faire de l'Azerbaïdjan un État chiite». La plupart des Azerbaïdjanais, citoyens d'une république laïque, réservent la religion aux enterrements. Mais depuis la chute de l'empire soviétique, des mouvements s'intéressent à ce réservoir de croyants et à leur potentiel d'influence. Des centaines de jeunes sont partis étudier en Arabie saoudite ou chez le grand voisin iranien. Des dizaines de mosquées se sont construites, financées par l'Iran ou les pays arabes du Golfe.

Le pouvoir, après avoir laissé faire, a expulsé la plupart des religieux saoudiens ou iraniens, et favorise les imams turcs, proches des Azerbaïdjanais par la langue et la culture et jugés plus modérés. Gamet Souleymanov et sa mosquée, financée, selon lui, par un milliardaire koweïtien, avaient survécu aux purges. Mais voilà : depuis l'attentat, elle reste fermée par les autorités, officiellement pour les besoins de l'enquête. En outre, «plus de deux cents fidèles ont été agressés par les policiers, et leur barbe rasée de force», affirme le religieux. L'islam radical se cherche une voie dans la république laïque d'Azerbaïdjan >>> P.P., Bakou | 13.10.2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Relié) >>>