Other countries, including Mexico, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and East Timor, have set up similar funds, and are pouring money into them.

ECONOMIST: What might oil producers do with all that extra cash?

The region covers EU countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, as well as Turkey and ex-Soviet Union countries including Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and was described by Romanian MEP Ioan Pascu as a "gate to and from Europe".

BBC: Black Sea strategy

Contestants can come from any member country of the European Broadcasting Union, which includes several non-European nations, including Israel, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

CNN: Denmark wins Eurovision Song Contest

Nonetheless, many worry that Britain's extradition arrangements have become too free and easy, thanks to the legal changes in 2003 that lightened the burden of proof in seeking extradition for 51 countries, including a few rather dodgy ones such as Azerbaijan.

ECONOMIST: Britain, America and extradition: Trial of an alien | The

Zeynep Fadillioglu is an award-winning interior designer who was born and raised in Istanbul, but has completed projects all around the world including the UK, France, Germany, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, India, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Holland and Turkey.

BBC: Profile: Zeynep Fadillioglu

In the area between the Black and the Caspian Seas lie countless festering issues, including separatist disaffection in two parts of Georgia, a territorial row between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the question of a pipeline to carry oil to the Mediterranean via Turkey.

ECONOMIST: Russia’s brutal folly | The

This was sealed by Turkey in 1993 to show solidarity with Azerbaijan, which had just lost 20% of its territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh.

ECONOMIST: Turkey and Armenia: Mountain chess | The