EurasiaNet has unveiled a new piece about the uproar that Kim Kardashian West’s brand name has caused in the Azerbaijani media.
For Azerbaijan, the article says, any product with an ethnic Armenian connection, whether a lipstick or a rifle, can be considered an enemy operation. You put a little bit of Kim Kardashian West (KKW) on your lips “and, boom, you support Azerbaijan’s enemy, one government-aligned media outlet warned.”
“You may say it’s just cosmetics, big deal. What does it have to do with the Armenian-occupied territories of Azerbaijan?” observed Azeri Today in a Russian-language article with the sub-title “For the attention of Azerbaijan’s Security Services!”
The story takes the trouble to respond to its own question.
The Kardashian family spends part of its earnings on “advancing the recognition of ‘the Armenian Genocide,’ Armenia’s military needs and on sustaining the separatist regime in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories,” the author posited.
The 36-year-old Kardashian West indeed campaigns for international recognition of the massacre of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. Both Turkey and its strategic ally and cultural kin, Azerbaijan, fiercely oppose such recognition.
But the celebrity is certainly not known for pitching against Azerbaijan in its arms race with Armenia or for promoting breakaway Nagorno Karabakh’s claim to independence.
The $45 KKW by Kylie lipstick collection, produced in California, is marketed exclusively by KylieCosmetics.com, a company branded for Kardashian West’s half-sister, the 20-year-old model and actress Kylie Jenner. The company limits sales to three of the same item per customer, but using a network of people to purchase hipster products online or to haul them in from Russia to resell locally is a longstanding Caucasus business practice.