I was in Azerbaijan in 2012 for Eurovision. One thing that was abundantly clear was the enormous gap between the excitement of the locals for foreigners and how few foreigners actually showed up. The Azeris saw it as an opportunity to make their mark on the world stage and spared no expense (or human rights violation, or animal rights violation) to make the event spectacular.<p>Baku is full of me-too projects like the 2nd tallest flagpole in the world (behind Tajikistan and now Saudi Arabia), the flame towers (one of which was broken to the point of uninhabitable) and the mentioned Khazar Islands which build off the concept of Dubai's Palm Islands but nobody seems to want.<p>The sad thing is there is actual amazing culture and interesting architecture in Azerbaijan. But the modern stuff is just atrocious.
The promotional video mentioned is beyond parody: <a href="https://youtu.be/u9InW0nbi0U" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/u9InW0nbi0U</a><p>Among many other gems, it's narrated by a guy with a strong Borat accent and actually used the words "lobster-shaped".
This needs an update:<p><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/azerbaijans-dependence-on-oil-prices-is-bad-for-the-governme" rel="nofollow">https://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/azerbaijans-dependence-on...</a><p><a href="http://www.infoaz.org/new/index.php/en/manset-eng/8076-hazhi-ibrahim-nehramli-is-in-a-depression-the-khazar-islands-prozhedzt-is-zhoinzh-to-fail" rel="nofollow">http://www.infoaz.org/new/index.php/en/manset-eng/8076-hazhi...</a>
I am from Azerbaijan, and I can say that having natural resources doesn't make a country rich. In fact, resource-rich countries usually end up poor.
They've been hosting the Formula 1 race for a few years now. An expensive, but probably effective way to show the world that you exist. I'd never heard of the country before F1.
Did something happen to this project?<p>The khazarislands.com website is blank and avestaconcern.az website only partially loads, with the slideshow images 404ing in the console.