‘Hosting of Eurovision 2012 exemplified how far Azerbaijan has come’

Azerbaijan's hosting of the Eurovision Song contest last month exemplified just how far the predominantly Muslim former Soviet republic has come since the days of communism, Azerbaijani ambassador to Washington Elin Suleymanov said in an interview with The Washington Times.

But the arrival of singers from more than 40 European nations and Israel for the most-watched nonsporting television event in the world also served as a microcosm of the challenges facing his nation, he said.

In an interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times, Suleymanov noted how Azerbaijan sits at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and is the only nation to border "both Russia and Iran."

U.S Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will push such issues as direct talks between the presidents of Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia on the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area during her tour of the region.

While Azerbaijan provides nearly 40 percent of Israel's oil, the relationship has prompted some Iranians to accuse it of "being the Trojan horse for Israel," Suleymanov said.

"Americans want to see a region that is free of terrorism and radicalism, they want to see nations which are able to cooperate in terms of religion and cultures, and that's what we want as well," Suleymanov said.

"Azerbaijan's "objective stands as an example where East and West, Muslim civilization and other civilization, come together and work together and become an example of tolerance," he said.

The country is committed to advancing U.S. energy interests. Suleymanov cited the 2005 completion of the Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline linking the Caspian and Mediterranean seas as "the biggest tangible success" of U.S. policy in the region since the Soviet Union's fall.

Suleymanov emphatically denied that the government targets journalists and asserted that the issue is often "blown out of proportion."