Grand Ambitions In Azerbaijan

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The government of Azerbaijan is spending unprecedented sums on grand development projects that flaunt the country's wealth and rapid modernization. The flagship project, designed by well-known Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, is the Heidar Aliyev Cultural Center in Baku, an entertainment complex glorifying the legacy of the late former president, who was the current president's father.
 
Architect\'s illustration of the new Heidar Aliyev Cultural Center in Baku, now being built by Turkish-Azerbaijani partnership Dia Holding Architect\'s illustration of a proposed business and entertainment center in downtown Baku Children stand in front of a newly built Olympic complex in Mashtaga, outside of Baku An Olympic sports complex in the southern town of Masalli, estimated to have cost $22 million Portraits of President Ilham Aliyev, who previously headed Azerbaijan\'s Olympic Committee, and his late father, Heidar Aliyev, watch over an empty gym A reporter poses outside the crumbling soccer stadium in Masalli Workers sort through garbage at a dump in Baku
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