Azerbaijan, Baku, May 8 / Trend corr. A. Akhundov/
Baku hosted the presentation of a special issue of The Business Year, dedicated to Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
The magazine features interviews with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, as well as with nearly 160 officials and business representatives. The editorial staff worked closely with the Administration of the President of the Republic during preparation of the magazine.
Such influential magazine as The Business Year, dedicates this year a special edition to Azerbaijan, which is indicative of great interest to the country, Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Social and Political Department Chief Ali Hasanov said at the presentation of the magazine.
"Azerbaijan has a rich culture, developed economy. There are countries, for description of which one article will be enough, but there are countries whose achievements do not fit in one issue," Hasanov said.
First of all, this year Azerbaijan was elected non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, where it began its presidency. This year, the President of Azerbaijan brought to the attention of world public the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Khojaly genocide and the Armenian vandalism in whole. In addition, since last year, the whole world's attention has focused on Azerbaijan in connection with the Eurovision 2012 song contest," Hasanov said.
Thanks to the last year's victory of the representatives of Azerbaijan Eldar and Nigar such a great contest this year will be held in Azerbaijan, the department head said. That is why people in all parts of the world collect information related to the culture and life of Azerbaijan, get acquainted with our republic. In short, this year all music lovers are looking for information on Azerbaijan.
"They learned that the Azerbaijani people can be an example for the world. They already know that in Azerbaijan for the first time in the East opera was established. We created the first democratic republic in the East, where women were granted the right to vote for the first in the East," Hasanov said.
Hasanov noted that recently some of the world media, the press, having met in Geneva, tried to pressure the European Broadcasting Union, so that Eurovision 2012 wouldn't be held in Azerbaijan.
"Blowing up a couple of events, they try to use it to exert pressure and strike a blow on the image of Azerbaijan," Hasanov said.
He said that today, unfortunately, there are news agencies and television stations in the world which wish to establish a monopoly on information.
"We must fight against libel, which is harmful to our image. Azerbaijan is ahead of several European countries in terms of national and spiritual values, political pluralism and religious tolerance. Jealous of this, some forces are trying to strike a blow to the image of Azerbaijan," Hasanov said.
Eurovision is an opportunity for Azerbaijan to convey its culture, tolerance to the world community, Hasanov said.
"We will demonstrate that we can not only hold the Eurovision, but also to organize it better than anyone. People, visiting Azerbaijan will leave as Azerbaijan's friends," he said.
Hasanov said such an influential magazine, as The Business Year, dedicated a special issue to Azerbaijan for the second time, which is an indicator of high interest to the country.
The presentation of a special issue of The Business Year international journal, dedicated to Azerbaijan was held at Jumeirah Bilgah Beach Hotel in Baku on Tuesday. Azerbaijani officials, MPs and members of the public attended the event.
Regional director of the magazine Betul Cakaloglu informed about the special issue at the event and said it is dedicated to the Eurovision. The magazine features two interviews with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and one special interview with First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, as well as materials about nearly 160 officials and business representatives. The editorial staff worked closely with the Administration of the President of the Republic during preparation of the magazine.
Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev, Chairman of the Central Bank Elman Rustamov, executive director of the State Oil Fund Shahmar Movsumov spoke about the importance of the magazine for Azerbaijan.