Justice
In Baku, a Citywide Coming-Out Party for Eurovision
The capital of post-Soviet Azerbaijan is decking itself out for Europe's kitschy song contest.
A glossy new airport terminal. A so-called White City, a neighborhood revamp that will reinvent major parts of the city center, displacing residents in favor of white marble sidewalks, glittering skyscrapers and a concrete park. Six fancy new hotels, including a ritzy Four Seasons, and a Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre. designed to look like rippling waves.
Such are the projects currently on the docket in Baku, Azerbaijan, the capital of this small, recently oil-rich country nestled between Iran and Russia. Workers have been imported from the countryside and Central Asia in a mad dash to spruce up the city before May, when the annual Eurovision song contest is set to arrive in town.