Chompy, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath fame has written Armenia's entry. Currently 20/1.
Any thoughts?
Interesting geopolitical significance.
Azerbajan hosted a very successful eurovision last year which Armenia declined to enter. With good reason as their entry would probably have been assassinated.
After the break up of the old Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbajan went to war in the early 1990s over an Armenian populated enclave within Azerbajan known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Similar to the India Pakistan issue over Kashmir.
It was further complicated by the fact that Azerbajan is Muslim and Armenia is Christian. So many Russian and Ukrainian mercenaries fought on the Armenian side and some Chechen and Taliban fought on the Azeri side. Messy.
The Christians prevailed and occupy this area to this day. Azerbajan is oil rich and has spent a lot of money in the past 2 decades upgrading their military strength. There is constant simmering tension and occasional small outbreaks of violence. If it does kick off again, there is the danger that regional neighbours, Turkey/Iran on the Muslim side and Russia on the Christian side could get pulled into the conflict.
Anyway, that is the reason Armenia didn't enter last year.
But the fact that Azerbajan won will make Armenia even more determined to do well this year and Armenia have a very, very good record in the competition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia_in_the_Eurovision_Song_ContestTop 10 in all the 5 years they have reached the final.
They historically get points from Russia and the Russian centric satellites often follow suit. Armenia has a large migrant population in France and they get votes from there too.
Central and Eastern Europe is full of rockers for whom Iommi will be a legend and Lordi proves Metal can prevail.
Surprisingly they also get votes from Turkey. This is surprising because the Turks tried to genocide the entire population during World War I, when they thought nobody was looking. This is a very touchy subject in Turkey and perhaps its a little bit of national guilt giving eurovision votes out.
Whilst the Armenians are probably quite grateful for these votes, they still despise Turkey with a national fervour and would gladly exchange those votes for the return of biblical mountain, Mount Ararat.
Ararat is where Noahs Ark was said to have come to rest and is a national symbol for (the 1st Christian nation in the world) Armenia. For Armenians it is located in 'western Armenia'. For the rest of the world, that's a few miles inside Turkeys border, in Eastern Anatolia.
Whatever, I digress.
Anyway the facts are
1. Armenia has 5 out of 5 top 10s when in the finals.
2. Iommi is a marquee signing!
3. Armenia is extra incentivised to do well this year.
I've just snapped up the last 6/5 to finish top 10 on Betfair. Still available at evens. They are actually 20/21 to finish top 5! No liquidity I guess. Maybe a watching brief.
P.s. I know all that Armenia stuff cos my uncle was Armenian and I visited there a few years back. I also went to Nargarno-Karabakh and have a visa in my passport saying so. I can't now enter Azerbajan until this passport expires in 2019.
Author