Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012

Armenia had originally applied to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, however, the country announced that they would be withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest in March 2012 due to long-standing tensions with Azerbaijan. The Armenian entry for the 2012 contest would have been selected internally by the Armenian broadcaster Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV) and presented to the public on 18 March 2012.
Background
Prior to the 2012 contest, Armenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest five times since its first entry in . Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been fourth place, which the nation achieved in 2008 with the song "Qélé, Qélé" performed by Sirusho. Armenia had, to this point, failed to qualify to the final on only one occasion in 2011 with the song "Boom Boom" performed by Emmy.
The Armenian national broadcaster, Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV), broadcasts the event within Armenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Despite doubts regarding special security guarantees for their potential representative and delegates due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between themselves and host country Azerbaijan, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) confirmed AMPTV's intentions to participate at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on 17 January 2012. Armenia has used various methods to select the Armenian entry in the past, such as a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. However internal selections have also been held on occasion. The broadcaster opted to internally select both the artist and the song for the 2012 contest, a procedure that had only been used once before to select Armenia's debut entry in 2006.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
The Armenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was to be internally selected by the AMPTV. On 30 January 2012, the broadcaster announced that the artist and song would be selected by a professional jury consisting of musicians, producers and representatives of AMPTV, and would be presented to the public on 18 March 2012.
Withdrawal
On 24 February 2012, over twenty Armenian singers signed a petition asking AMPTV to withdraw from the contest, citing the death of an Armenian soldier who was allegedly shot by an Azerbaijani sniper a few days earlier in the violated ceasefire as a reason for their "refusal to perform in the contest." Although it was later announced that the soldier was killed by a fellow Armenian soldier instead of an Azerbaijani, the Armenian singers claimed that Armenia should not have participated this year and that they would have called for the boycott of Eurovision in Baku even if the Armenian soldier had not been killed.
On 7 March 2012, AMPTV announced their withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, stating that it was no longer confident that the Azerbaijani authorities would carry out their promise to guarantee the security of the Armenian delegation after Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, had stated that Azerbaijan's "main enemies are Armenians of the world" in a speech given on 28 February. The broadcaster also explained that they could not send participants to a country where they "will be greeted as an enemy". Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest Jon Ola Sand stated that the EBU was "truly disappointed" with Armenia's withdrawal, and that "despite the efforts of the EBU and the Host Broadcaster to ensure a smooth participation for the Armenian delegation in this year's Contest, circumstances beyond our control lead to this unfortunate decision." As a result of the late withdrawal, AMPTV was fined by the EBU, charging it the regular participation fee plus an extra 50% of this amount. The broadcaster were also required to broadcast all three shows of the competition live with no interruptions.
Armenia, originally set to perform in the first half of the second semi-final of the contest on 24 May 2012, was removed from the competition. In Armenia, the two semi-finals and the final were broadcast on Armenia 1 with commentary by Gohar Gasparyan and Artur Grigoryan.

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