Azerbaijan evicts Baku residents for Eurovision contest
- 12 years ago
The Azerbaijani capital Baku will be hosting the final stage of the Eurovision Song contest on Saturday.
The authorities in Azerbaijan are making the occasion of hosting the contest as a centrepiece of its efforts to make Baku an international cultural capital.
However, rights-activists say the government has spent a record $100m directly on one of the world's longest-running and most widely watched musical events.
Local residents have been forced out of their homes to make way for "city beautification", with about 4,000 apartments demolished and up to 50,000 people evicted across the country .
Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman reports from Baku.
The authorities in Azerbaijan are making the occasion of hosting the contest as a centrepiece of its efforts to make Baku an international cultural capital.
However, rights-activists say the government has spent a record $100m directly on one of the world's longest-running and most widely watched musical events.
Local residents have been forced out of their homes to make way for "city beautification", with about 4,000 apartments demolished and up to 50,000 people evicted across the country .
Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman reports from Baku.