A song titled “Euphoria” won the Eurovision Song Contest for the Swedish entrant, Loreen. For many Baku residents, the word that comes to mind now that the contest is over is relief.
For the days that Azerbaijan served as the host of the Eurovision event, many areas of the capital were under tight security. That meant a mountain of hassles for locals.
At the age of 14, Kifayat Mammadova was married and already an expectant mother. A year and a half later, her marriage had failed, her child had died, and she was on the road to Baku from her village in the mountains of southern Azerbaijan in search of a new life.
It’s a bright spring morning in Baku, and, at Azerbaijan’s only non-profit school for snipers, 10 students are diligently taking notes about the “peculiarities” of a Russian-made, semi-automatic Dragunov sniper rifle and those of a Israeli-made Tavor TAR-21 assault rifle.
