Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 25
Trend:
Besides Azerbaijan, around 12 countries attended the sixth International Sacred Music Music Festival "Samaa", dedicated to the International Day for Tolerance, in Cairo, Egypt, the State Committee for Work with Diaspora told Trend on Monday.
The performance of Russian representatives at the festival's opening, two of whom were Armenians, caused discontent among Azerbaijanis.
The reason was that Avetis Manukyan presented the balaban, which is an Azerbaijani national instrument, as a wind musical instrument of Armenia. The Azerbaijani delegation was also dissatisfied with the fact that Khankendi as part of Armenia was indicated as the birthplace of one of Russian representatives in special leaflets distributed by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.
The diaspora representatives have informed the organizers and participants of the festival and expressed their protest in this regard. As a result, Armenia's participation in the final concert was forbidden.