"Hosting Eurovision in Baku this year helped Azerbaijan demonstrate its progress which the country managed to attain through the years of independence." 
The statement came from Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov in the article published in The Wall Street Journal.
"As host of this year's Eurovision Song Contest, my country can showcase the progress it has made since independence," the minister says.
"Azerbaijan's pride in hosting the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, which has the largest television audience of any non-sporting event in the world, reflects far more than a love of music. It signals my country's re-emergence into the international community and enables us to showcase our achievements since independence," the minister explains.
In the article Mammadyarov speaks about a turning point in the history of the country during the USSR collapse and the restoration of national independence, war with its neighbour Armenia and implications of this war including millions of refugees and the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh region, the overcoming of political and economic crisis of that period by Azerbaijan which thus made its way to economic growth and prosperity.
"Today, in 20 years after gaining independence, Azerbaijan has become one of the fastest economies in the world where the average annual growth in GDP in 2003-2008 made 20%", Mammadyarov said noting the great role of the national Oil Fund and the reasonable economic management.
"Azerbaijan has managed to combine the rapid economic growth, including the steady growth in non-energy sector, with economic and political stability", the minister says.

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