The possible arrival of the Russian singer Zara Mgoyan in Baku has caused a scandal among Azerbaijani Facebook users, which fails to calm down for several days. The reason behind such a development is that Zara has an Armenian surname and sings a song titled “My Armenia”.

According to information posted on social media, the singer was invited to join the music festival Zhara-2018, the main organizer of which is Russian singer of Azerbaijani descent, the son of a powerful businessman and former son-in-law of the Azerbaijani President Emin Agalarov, Jamnews.net reports.

Zara is an unwelcome guest in Azerbaijan, because she has been openly supporting Armenia on Instagram.

Comments in Facebook range from extremely aggressive posts to ironic ones: “Shame on those who have invited an Armenian singer to Baku and to those who let that happen! What a disgrace!”; “Be cursed, traitors of the motherland!”; “Let’s [bring in] Serj Tankian and the SOAD!”.

The main argument in defense of Zara is that, she is not an Armenian by nationality, but a Yazidi (Yazidis are a Kurdish ethno-confessional group).

The festival will be held from July 26 to 29.

Famous Russian singers of Armenian origin have previously performed in Baku. In such cases, not only their ethnicity counts, but also their behavior and position on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. For example, when the Russian singer with Georgian roots Soso Pavliashvili went to Baku with a concert in 2016, the Azerbaijani public resented his statements that he “went to Karabakh and will go” in the future too. Nevertheless, the concert was held to a full house.

But during the World Cup of 2011, Azerbaijanis tried to throw stones at the Armenian boxers.