Azerbaijani jury member Samira Efendi gave the highest score of 12 points to Armenian participant Saro Gevorgyan at the ‘Star of the Silk Road’ competition on 23 November in Astana, sparking a wave of criticism on social media.
At the final stage of the competition, Efendi assessed Gevorkyan's performance, stating that she wanted peace throughout the world and could not lower her score.
After her speech, Efendi hugged Gevorkyan, a move widely discussed on Azerbaijani social media.
The controversy erupted after a pro-government media shared posts about Gevorkyan was published, claiming that he had served in the Armenian Army in 2019. Rumours later emerged saying that he had served during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War of 2020.
In response to these claims, Efendi was invited as a guest on local TV channel Khazar.
During the interview, Efendi said that she does not regret that she had assessed Gevorgyan’s performance highly.
‘Several times I cut his score, but at the final stage, I saw his great performance. Once he asked me when I was assessing his performance with low scores of eight. He said that he knows why I’m doing this... “But you’re hurting my future career”, Gevorgyan said to me and his words had a great impact on me’, Efendi said.
Later, Efendi claimed that during the 2021 [Efendi participated at the Eurovision Song Contest in the Netherlands], she was pelted with eggs and tomatoes by Armenian fans.
‘They brought tomatoes and eggs into the pavilion and waved flags. Our media didn’t report on it. I won’t forget it. But I want our future generations to live in goodness and peace. I don’t want young people to go to the front lines with weapons in their hands. This is my position, I gave this score deliberately and he deserved these scores’.
Efendi justified her speech by saying that she supported President Ilham Aliyev’s position on peace with Armenia.
After this, Efendi’s supporters took to social media to come to her defence.
Nadir Yalchin, a social media user, posted a photo on social media showing a house in Hadrut during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
‘My friends and I visited several houses. I was looking around the rooms. Behind a coat rack on the wall, I saw a photo. It was a portrait of Muslim Magomayev, a famous Azerbaijani singer, in his youth. After this incident, I apologised and listened in amazement to a performance by the Armenian singer Charles Aznavour’.
Yalchin wrote that ‘if an Armenian, a victim of Armenian separatism, could retain love for Magomayev in his heart, if he dared not fear the slander of a neighbour or relative and hung his portrait, even a small one, on the wall of his home, then music, talent, and greatness know no boundaries, religion, nationality, or race’.
Others, however, continued their criticism.
The head of the pro-government party Free Homeland Akif Naghi, wrote on social media that ‘a certain bitch named Samira Efendi continues her disgusting actions in the name of the Azerbaijani people’.
‘Now, at a song contest in Kazakhstan, she hugs an Armenian guy, says we are friends, etc. The authorities should not allow her to represent Azerbaijan anywhere. And every Azerbaijani should spit in her face wherever they see her’.
Efendi is preparing to sue Naghi for his words.
Nate Ostiller
