Baku snafu: hosting Eurovision wasn't meant to be like this

WINNING the Eurovision Song Contest may be a mixed blessing: 2012 hosts Azerbaijan have already run into a PR disaster after it emerged the contest could be pretty bad news if you happen to live in Baku, the former Soviet republic's capital city.

According to The Times, Azerbaijanis living close to the site of a new 25,000-seater stadium under construction specially to hold the 2012 song competition say they have had their homes bulldozed with minimal compensation ­ and in some cases with them still inside.

One pensioner, Natalya Alibekova, told the BBC that a group of men had threatened to throw her family out if they didn't leave by New Year's Eve. She said: "They said 'you have no rights and no house'. It's horrible. We are all sick with worry."

There were also claims that people had their heating, light and water supplies cut off by the authorities to force them out of their homes while others have been left homeless after eviction. In some cases, demolition began with people still inside.

Human Rights Watch says that hundreds have lost their homes in the drive to complete the new stadium. The organisation believes that Azerbaijan has breached the EU convention on human rights.

It wasn't supposed to be like this: winning the 2011 contest, with Running Scared by the duo Ell/Nikki (above), was a major coup for the small, oil-rich nation, which seized the chance to boost its international image, somewhat tarnished by existing widespread allegations of human rights abuses.

It's a measure of how seriously the small nation is taking the contest that authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev's wife, Mehriban Aliyeva, took the top job as head of the Eurovision organising committee.

In addition to the purpose-built arena, the First Lady is planning a museum dedicated to the history of Azerbaijan's participation in the 57-year song competition, reports the News.az website.

The eviction stories aren't the only headache for Azerbaijan. It has already been forced to issue a statement saying that gay Eurovision fans will be welcome in Baku, despite claims from prominent ex-pats that the country is not safe for homosexuals.

A final blow is the non-participation of Poland. According to the Warsaw Business Journal, the eastern European nation will be too busy next summer co-hosting the Euro 2012 football to be involved. ·