Armenian side confirmed officially: Armenia will not participate in Eurovision 2012 in Baku

Today Armenian Public Television officially informed the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) of their withdrawal from the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, eurovision.tv informs.

“We are truly disappointed by the broadcaster’s decision to withdraw from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest,” said the Contest Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand on behalf of the EBU. “Despite the efforts of the EBU and the Host Broadcaster to ensure a smooth participation for the Armenian delegation in this year’s Contest, circumstances beyond our control lead to this unfortunate decision.”

Consequently, only 42 countries – instead of the 43 announced – will be represented at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. In each Semi-Final, 18 countries will be represented, whereas France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and host country Azerbaijan are automatically qualified for the Final.

Azerbaijani side does not guarantee for the participants’ security in Baku during the contest. Armenians know well about the dangers which they may face in Azerbaijan. Some weeks ago another Armenian solider was killed on the border by Azerbaijani sniper and after a group of Armenian singers released an announcement where they refused to participate in Eurovision 2012. They explained the Eurovision organizers that Azerbaijan continued hostile policy towards Armenia and kills Armenian soldiers. They offered to change the hosting country and everything would be normal. Note that not only Armenia but also some other European countries such as Germany, Netherlands were against of holding Eurovision 2012 in Baku, as human rights are violated in Azerbaijan terribly.