May 22, 2013 - 14:08 AMT
OPINION
Azerbaijan to blacklist famous soprano Montserrat Caballe?

A belief grows stronger every day that Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and various institutions are mainly busy surfing the web for any information on Armenia and Karabakh and staring “examination” once they find what they were looking for.

The recent “examination” concerns a world-famed soprano Montserrat Caballe who’ll perform and give master classes in Yerevan on June 9.

As APA news agency reported quoting Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev, the Foreign Ministry is examining the information regarding the upcoming concert of opera singer Montserrat Caballé in “Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.”

Whether Caballe will be singing in Stepanakert is, strangely enough, the question of minor importance for Baku. One can’t help but wonder: does the great singer know of the imminent threat of Azeri “black list” and defamation by Aliyev-controlled media?

What would happen if it was not a world-famed star but a Foreign Minister of any country who travelled to Stepanakert? Would the step lead to severed diplomatic ties and announcing of the politician as a persona non grata? Incidentally, Azeri “black list” includes over a hundred of diplomats, scientists, as well as European, Russia, American and Canadian diplomats, which means that the singer will find herself in quite a respectable company.

Karine Ter-Sahakian / PanARMENIAN News