HRW calls on Azerbaijani authorities to stop forcible expropriation of citizens' property

The international organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) has presented a study on the facts of mass violations of citizens' property rights in Baku. On February 29, the presentation of the document "I have been deprived of everything: forced resettlements in Baku, illegal expropriation and destruction of property" was held at the Baku Hotel "Diplomat".

"In recent years, the authorities of Azerbaijan, the country rich in oil resources, have been carrying out an extensive programme of improvement and development of Baku's infrastructure. However, the programme is accompanied by illegal expropriation of citizens' property, forced resettlement of them away from their houses, destruction of their houses in order to build roads, parks, shopping and business centres, and elite-class housing facilities instead," the document states.

The report of the HRW focuses on the facts of forcible expropriation of citizens' property in the following four Baku districts: behind the Palace named after Geidar Aliev, where the so-called Winter Boulevard is being built; in the territory adjacent to Flag Square, where the concert complex "Crystal Hall" for housing the "Eurovision-2012" is erected (earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has presented a video on the issue, - note of the "Caucasian Knot"); in Neftyanikov Avenue (opposite to the Sports Palace for Hand Games) and in Azadlyg Avenue (next to the former monument to Karl Marx), where they erect multi-storey buildings. The authors of the report have interviewed 52 affected residents, lawyers and activists of various NGOs.

When asked about the approximate number of citizens, whose property rights had been violated, Jane Buchanan, one of the authors of the study and a HRW expert for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said that the study results suggested that "hundreds of families were unlawfully deprived of their houses and apartments."

According to Ms Buchanan, the authors had also planned to present the position of the government; however, out of ten letters sent to different state agencies, only one answer was received, dealing with two specific cases.

The study revealed that the Baku Mayoralty and the State Committee on Property were involved in unlawful demolition of houses.

Giorgiy Gogiya, another author of the document and the head of the Division of the HRW for Southern Caucasus, has categorized violations of citizens' rights during demolition of their houses into several groups.

"Firstly, the alienation of citizens' houses was unlawful, since under the Constitution of Azerbaijan, no one can be deprived of property without a court's decision," said Mr Gogiya.

According to the HRW expert, the second group of violations was in the failure to pay fair compensations to citizens based on market prices.

The third group of violations has to do with threats to citizens' safety, health and life: "There were a lot of cases, when they started to demolish houses, when people still lived there," said Giorgiy Gogiya.

The fourth group of violations included facts of deprivation of citizens of their right to challenge unlawful decisions.

Besides, the report recommends the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to call on the government of Azerbaijan to investigate all the complaints against forced evictions of citizens from the construction area of the "Crystal Hall", the complex, which will host the song contest "Eurovision-2012". According to the authors of the document, the EBU should also get guarantees of the government of Azerbaijan that human rights will no longer be violated.

This week, the authors of the report managed to seek reception of state officials' in particular, of Ali Gasanov, Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration, Samed Seidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE, and a staff member of the department for human rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). "Although they claimed that they did not agree with all the provisions of the report, they agreed that such issues should be resolved on the basis of the rule of law and judicial decisions," said Jane Buchanan.