Thursday, October 3

No place for 300 Spartans in Azerbaijan

Remember the talking donkey from 2009? We all know how that satirical story ended- the brains behind the satirical video were jailed. Hooliganism was their sentence because the government was too embarrassed to reveal the actual destination of the lump sum of some 40 grand, which was the reported price of the super special imported donkey. 

So it was not surprising that when another satirical video appeared online two days ago, the brain behind it was apprehended immediately, questioned and "asked" not to publish anything of this sort in the run up to the presidential elections. 

Young photo journalist Mehman Huseynov who prepared the video said [AZ] following his release that he had no idea he was taken in for questioning because of the video. It was only after the police mentioned it to him that he realized what caused his apprehension. In an interview with Radio Free Euope, Huseynov said he told the police that this was political satire but apparently the dislike was so great that it caused a several hour interrogation anyway.

The video (below) in question is the classic that many of you probably have seen "300", a story about King Leonidas and a force of 300 men fighting the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Talented Huseynov, took one of the most important scenes from the movie (the one when "evil men are pushed into the big well") and mashed it with a recent speech of Cemil Hesenli- main candidate running against Aliyev in the upcoming presidential elections scheduled to take place on October 9th. The scene ends with Hesenli saying "this regime must go".


Another embarrassment for the authorities if you ask me- Huseynov's video had only about 4,000 views before he was taken in for questioning, as of today it received 35,980 viewers (at the time this post is written). And if the government is so certain its going to win, why all this stress because one satirical video?!

No comments: