Baku - first-hand impressions

Azerbaijan a unique opportunity to show Europe in 2012 at least part of its rich cultural heritage, and to host - for the first time in its 20-year-long history as an independent state - a high ranking international event which attracts more than 100 million television viewers each year.

The Eurovision Song Contest was not the main reason for the recent visit of the Serbian delegation to this country which many still consider exotic. The expanding bilateral cooperation between Serbia and Azerbaijan in the field of youth policy was the prime motive for the visit organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the British Council in Azerbaijan and in Serbia. However, youth always being the best and most precious resource of the state, as well as the largest fan base for ESC, the visit was also marked by the spirit of current Eurovision events.

In fact, in this country ranking second in the world for economic growth, everything is in the sign of ESC - both in areas pertaining to the event, and in those that are not typical of it. Construction sites - recalling the Olympic Games fever, are visible throughout the capital and all is "at the service" of the upcoming Festival. The wonderful atmosphere is certainly helped by tangible economic facts: in 2003 the unemployment rate was 9.7% and this year it fell to 5.6%. All around the city new office buildings, luxury hotels, magnificent venues are being built. Some of these wonders of modern architecture are already functional, and others are still to be inaugurated... Seemingly they've been built "just in case" - because of ESC. Special training has been organized for civil servants and state officials to make Baku the best host for thousands of diverse Eurovision fans. The venue where the competition will be held is still unspecified, but unofficial sources reveal that it will be an unprecedented solution for this occasion - in the harbor, next to the biggest flag pole in the world, on water rather than on land... Nevertheless, two other options are being kept open and two more buildings are undergoing reconstruction for this occasion.

Azerbaijan is determined to fully use the chance it has been granted by a single song. Taking careful and prudent steps, the Land of Fire, with a 93% Muslim Shiite majority, known until recently only as an inexhaustible source of world oil and gas, is showing the world its determination to turn to Europe as a partner. The will to learn about human rights, European values and to change its image when it comes to freedom of the media is evident along with the interesting phenomenon of promoting cooperation with Serbia.

The Azerbaijani economic investments we have been witnessing in our country are certainly more than welcome, but they are not the only interest Baku has shown in cooperating with our country. Being greeted in Serbian by an 18-year-old girl in the town of Ghanjzha, and meeting a young man from Baku that lectures on the history of our country, one realizes that there is something more to the political and economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Serbia. Perhaps Serbia is the measure of Europe that Azerbaijan can absorb at the present.

The Government of Azerbaijan is giving great importance to its international image. Baku stepping into the spotlight in view of the forthcoming 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, prompted a gradual change of the customary rules of behavior in this country. Like shaking hands with a woman when greeting her. Such cultural changes in a country smelling of crude oil and Orient - a country of stark contrast lying on the border between Europe and Asia, are part of a dynamic process taking place at this very moment.

The Eurosong contest is certainly an opportunity to raise the standards in Azerbaijan when it comes to European values. Primarily those in the domain of culture and human rights that transcend the religious and strictly national context. The problem - openly listed even by the official government - of the conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, because of its similarity with the one that that Serbia has with Kosovo, is yet another reference point in the relations between our two countries, but also an element of a long-term political process with an unforeseeable solution in a region having enormous strategic and energy-supply importance for the whole world, which might even prompt the involvement of Turkey - a NATO member - as well as that of Russia or Iran.

In such a potentially politically sensitive climate, even the innocuous organization of the Eurovision Song Contest carries politically cautious overtones. And there's a tangible chance of both sides meeting in Baku in 2012. Soon enough we'll have the opportunity to see how will Azerbaijan greet the representatives of Armenia, should they come, but the hospitality the Azerbaijanis have shown to the Serbs was way beyond the requirements of official protocol. Eagerness for cooperation, with a clearly stated intention that the Memorandum of cooperation between the Ministries of Youth and Sports should be maximally operational, merely indicates that the door for economic, industrial and cultural cooperation with Serbia is now wide open.

In the coming months we will be primarily focusing on the quality of Eurovision music, but should 2012 ESC contribute to a reduction of the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and to a higher quality of relations between Serbia and the "Land of Fire", then everything might acquire an additional - real life - meaning.