Reports have been circulating over the past day or two that the Azerbaijan authorities have questioned their citizens who voted for Armenia in the 2009 Eurovision Contest. This all stems from a couple of decades of tension between the two countries over the breakaway republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which used to be part of Azerbaijan proper. After some minor conflicts in the region, it's Armenian majority voted to breakaway from Azerbaijan in 1991, thus beginning a war which has left the two ethnic groups bitterly divided. It was thought that relations between the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh governments were getting closer in recent years, but this probe by the Azerbaijani's is sure to rise the tension yet again. It seems like an unnecessary provocation on their part, sending out all the wrong signals, and it also breaks many civil and privacy codes too.

THE CLASHING OF TWO CULTURES

Nagorno-Karabakh is one of those areas within eastern Europe which is still suffering badly from a Soviet hangover, but there was conflict in the area long before the Soviets came to power. The Russians, Turks, Armenians and Azerbaijani's have all used it as a killing field, and the groups of Azerbaijani's and Armenian's in the area remain bitterly divided over it's history. This is because of its demographics and geography. It is land-locked within Muslim Azerbaijan, but has a majority of Christian Armenians living there who are heavily supported by Armenia itself, which is only a few miles away. Parts of Azerbaijan are also divided from each other by Armenia, and this further confuses relations between the two major ethnic groups of the area.

THE ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI CONFLICT OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH

After years of in-fighting, in 1923 the Soviets eventually gave it some autonomy to recognise it's Armenian majority, making it an official 'autonomous oblast' within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, which worked for a while. By 1989, when the Soviet Union was just about to collapse, there were 145,593 Armenians (76.4%) and 42,871 Azerbaijanis (22.4%) living in Nagorno-Karabakh, but their lives were just about to be turned upside down. Major confrontations between the two ethnic groups - Azerbaijan's forces were pitted against the Nagorno-Karabakh freedom fighters who were backed by Armenia - set the tone until 1994 when an unofficial peace deal was then agreed through Russia. To this day there are plenty of tales of ethnic cleansing on both sides, but in Nagorno-Karabakh itself the majority of the population is currently ethnic Armenian (as much as 95%). And although Azerbaijan is still officially in charge of Nagorno-Karabakh - in the international communities eyes - a government has been set up there that rules as a de facto independent state called the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and both the Azerbaijani and Nagorno-Karabakh governments control small slices of each others territory.

THE AZERBAIJANI ACCUSATIONS OVER THE 2009 EUROVISION VOTE

In the 2009 Eurovision Contest, held in Moscow, Aysel & Arash represented Azerbaijan and Inga & Anush performed for Armenia. The initial reports circulating from the BBC and The Guardian say that there were just a total of 43 votes cast for the Armenian contestants from within Azerbaijan, and that some or all of these people who voted for Armenia have been taken in for questioning by the Azerbaijani police. According to The Guardian all of the 43 have been questioned by police, and they are quoting one of those voters, 22 year old Rovshan Nasirli, as saying "They said it was a matter of national security. They were trying to put psychological pressure on me, saying things like, 'You have no sense of ethnic pride. How come you voted for Armenia?". The BBC says it spoke to one un-named voter who "was accused of being unpatriotic and a potential security threat". The Azerbaijani authorities have countered this by saying that they just invited people to explain why they voted for Armenia. What? Who's going to believe that?

THE BACKLASH BEGINS, THE CONSEQUENCES BECOME EVIDENT

The Eurovision organisers and civil rights groups are all coming out condemning it, saying it is a violation of basic civil rights, and privacy too. Nobody should have access to that kind of sensitive information - phone numbers and vote preferences - in a public and democratic poll, and the Azerbaijani's seem to have lit a fuse with this enormous violation. This may not seem like much to most of us, but it sends out a message to the public in Azerbaijan that pro-Armenian sentiment is not welcome in public, and that they can get to you no matter what. It will no doubt cool relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan too, who had been getting close to forming a solid agreement over Nagorno-Karabakh. It also does one other terrible thing. Young kids - who form the majority of voters in these competitions - loose another little bit of their personal freedom. Their freedom of expression is now even more curtailed. Not only are they living in a land where generations have been subjected to cruel leaderships and where two distinct ethnic groups are finding it hard to live side-by-side, now they must watch out for which way they vote in text-based competitions. It just takes that little bit more enjoyment out of life for them, and that is unforgivable.