Azeri minister thanks Russian for its Eurovision-2011 support

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - Azerbaijan's Minister of
Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev is grateful for Russia's support of
the Azerbaijani winner duet Eldar & Nigar at the Eurovision-2011 song
contest in Dusseldorf.
"Russia's support was extremely valuable," Garayev said in an
interview with Itar-Tass. He's attending the 11th summit of the World
Travel and Tourism Council.
Eldar & Nigar won the first ever Eurovision victory for Azerbaijan.
They overdid contesters from 42 countries and scored 221 points in the
final voting.
"Azerbaijan has participated in the Eurovision song contest three
times. All the three times it performed very well. For the third time the
presentation of our duet turned out to be interesting and well acclaimed,"
the Azerbaijani minister of culture and tourism said.
"They fitted in the current of expectations, interests and vision of
broad public," Garayev added.
The minister said that after the outcome of the voting in Dusseldorf
he had received many phone calls from Russia with greetings over the
success of the Aszeri duet.
"Russia supported Azerbaijani singer with its votes. I think it's
logical because our cultures are very close," Garage emphasized.
Russia gave the highest marks to Azerbaijan (12 points), Ukraine (10
points) and Greece (8 points).