This meeting will sort out the arrangements for the contest which will be held in Baku in May, Ismayil Omarov, general director of Azerbaijan's Public TV & Radio Broadcasting Company, told a press conference on Tuesday.
"I am sure that the most beautiful, grandest contest will be held in Azerbaijan,” he said.
Baku earned the right to host the competition after Azerbaijan's contestants Ell & Nikki won Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest.
On Armenia’s participation in Eurovision-2012, Omarov said: “As regards the involvement of Armenian representatives in this contest, I have been informed that the Armenians said they would not participate in the contest when asked about it. If this is really so, then I regret it. Eurovision is a contest which encourages human values. We don’t invite anybody separately. It is a very long process, there are very serious rules and we observe these rules.”
(Talks are continuing on a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, following a bitter war which resulted in the Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts.)
Asked how much money had been spent on Azerbaijan's entrants, Ell & Nikki, Omarov said precise figures had not been calculated but that it was less than last year.
He described as "bad losers" people who put Azerbaijan’s victory down to financial resources.
“I ask you not to focus on finance. This is a victory for Azerbaijani culture, music, Eldar and Nigar. Eldar and Nigar were considered the favourites and this turned out to be right," Omarov said.
He noted that Ell & Nikki had been chosen as Azerbaijan's Eurovision contestants after a long selection process and that the jury had got it right.
Telecoms
Azerbaijan's telecommunications network is ready for next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, a senior official has said.
Deputy Minister of Communications and IT Iltimas Mammadov said that the telecoms network had been ready to host the competition when Azerbaijan joined Eurovision.
"Viewers voted in the contest via all mobile operators. The ministry started this process three years ago. As a result, modern technology has been installed by Public TV and other bodies," Mammadov said.
Visas
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and other state bodies will do what is required to hold Eurovision 2012 in Baku at the highest level possible, a ministry official said.
“Given the interest of the international community and, especially, Europe in this contest, all diplomatic bodies abroad will be tasked with issuing visas and other travel documents for Azerbaijan in a timely fashion. Moreover, the latest changes to visa issuance procedures will allow online visa applications to Azerbaijani embassies," he said.
Congratulations
One half of the winning duo, Eldar Gasimov, congratulated the whole Turkic world on the Eurovision victory: “This is not only our victory, but a victory for all of us. Thank you for your belief in us,” he told the Public TV press conference on Tuesday.
Nigar Jamal expressed her thanks to those who had believed in them and congratulated the Azerbaijani people on the victory: “I was holding a Turkish flag in my hand. I took it onto the stage because we were representing the entire Turkic world. It means that we are really one nation, two states,” she told the press conference.
The speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament, Ogtay Asadov, added his voice to the wave of congratulations to the Azerbaijani duo on their Eurovision win.
“The victory of our duo is the victory of the entire Azerbaijani people. I searched for Azerbaijan in Google and can say that Azerbaijan has gained a great deal of popularity. So many people have viewed the news about our country,” Asadov said in parliament on Tuesday.
“Azerbaijan’s Eurovision 2011 victory showed that ordinary Europeans are far less biased in their assessments than European politicians,” Ali Ahmadov, executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, said tartly.
Ahmadov has harshly criticized a European Parliament resolution expressing concern at the human rights situation in the country and accusing the Azerbaijani authorities of increasing harassment and intimidation of journalists and political activists.
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