Azerbaijan became active EBU member

According to ESCkaz.com, representatives of Azerbaijan Public Television stated shortly after acceding to the EBU that "our aim is to enter the Eurovision Song Contest". This makes a stark contrast to the situation for Azerbaijan a month ago after AzTV were denied EBU membership due to too strict state control of the channel.

A participation is now possible as Azerbaijan has fulfilled the most basic rule of the competition - having an active membership of the EBU. However, it remains to be seen whether the EBU will allow any more participants for the 2008 contest after 42 countries took part in Helsinki.

After confirmed interest from Slovakia and San Marino, as well as a petition being launched for the entrance of San Marino, and assuming nobody withdraws, this gives us a possible total of 45 interested countries for Belgrade.

source:esctoday.com;esckaz.com