Eurovision reference group has condemned Armenia's contestant Iveta Mukuchyan for brandishing the flag of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Green room last night during the first semifinal live broadcast. The separatist region is officially part of Azerbaijan but currently is under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces.
EBU on Wednesday called the incident a "serious breach" of its ban on political messages. It said Armenia's public broadcaster would face yet-to-be-determined sanctions and that "any further breach of the rules of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest could lead to disqualification from this year's event or any successive editions." So, people of Armenian delegation: make sure those flags are taken away from Iveta!
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan qualified for the Eurovision final on Saturday.
When the Eurovision song contest took place in Baku, Azerbaijan 2012 Armenia skipped that year....
Update: Armenia will be sanctioned by the managing committee of the Eurovision Song Contest in June and could face a financial penalty and retrospective points deduction. They have been threatened with disqualification and exclusion from the competition for a number of years if there are any further breaches of Eurovision Rules.
Update: Armenia will be sanctioned by the managing committee of the Eurovision Song Contest in June and could face a financial penalty and retrospective points deduction. They have been threatened with disqualification and exclusion from the competition for a number of years if there are any further breaches of Eurovision Rules.
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