Eurovision 2012: Baku is ready

VK continues the project Unknown Caucasus. A new page of the project is opened by journalist Oleg Kushaty. Recently he has returned from Azerbaijan, where he saw Baku's preparations for the Eurovision song contest, Gabala and Ishmaels in the mountain regions. VK publishes his first report.
My photos were taken on April 15th and the pictures of the concert hall were out of date within two days. In my pictures the Crystal Hall looks unfinished. But on April 17th the executive director of the Heydar Aliyev Fund, Anar Alekperov, stated that construction of the concert complex was finished. The building was given to Brainpoll for preparations for the show.

When two days ago we came to Cape Bailov, the statement seemed to be unreal. The construction site was full of people in work clothes. It was a long way from evening dresses. We had to pass a construction site to reach the press center. However, our companion, the press center employee Kamran Agasi, calmly said that in few days asphalt would be covered around the building, and the organizing committee would try thousands of computers equipped in the press center. Crystal Hall would be built even faster. And what we have seen was built during 8 months in the coldest winter when the coast of the Caspian Sea froze over. Two days later we saw that Kamran’s words were true. The Crystal Hall was ready on April 17th.

“At this Eurovision contest there will be many debuts,” Kamran Agasi told us. “The initiators propose a series of technical and musical-show ideas which people will remember.”

Many people are looking forward to Eurovision in Baku. So the very serious treatment by the organizing staff is understandable. The Heydar Aliyev Fund is a patron of Eurovision 2012. The first stage of preparation – construction of the unique Crystal Hall – is completed as planned. Few people in Baku doubt the success of other stages.

“One of the aims of the contest in Baku is to tell Europe about Azerbaijan in detail, including its culture. Didn’t Muslim Magomayev do it thirty years ago?” I asked Agasi.

He answers: “Today Azerbaijan is experiencing a new epoch – independent development. Magomayev was a symbol of Azerbaijan for my parents and people of their generation. Even today people in the former Soviet Union love him. For 20-30 year old people, the victory of our duet in Eurovision 2011 is a new musical breakthrough to Europe. A new epoch – new objectives.”

“I remember times when Azerbaijanis were unknown even in Moscow,” the general director of the Center of Caucasiology of the Russian State University for Humanities, Ismail Agakishiev, says. “When I said that I came from the Caucasus, many asked me: are you Georgian? I believe that Azerbaijanis began to be recognized in the Soviet Union in the 1970-1980s, when the republic experienced an economic boom. Eurovision 2012 is a great information breakthrough. Many Europeans will come to the contest and see how contemporary Baku is being built and learn about Azerbaijani history and culture. Soon the fifth international airport in Azerbaijan – in Gabala – will be opened.”

During Eurovision 2011 the well-known Azerbaijani writer Chingiz Abdullayev was on his way home from Romania. He received the news of the victory by the Azerbaijani duet in Turkey. “Turkish people were happy with our victory, as if they had won,” Abdullayev says. “People with flags of the two countries ran on to the streets.” As for the country that won’t come to Eurovision 2012, it is sad. If Armenian singers sang in Baku it would be a step on the path to mutual understanding between two nations.

Oleg Kyshaty, Moscow-Baku. Exclusively to VK