AZERBAIJAN/GEORGIA: Rights groups say night-time demolitions, which are part of the Baku facelift, violate property rights and mask backsliding democracy

Record ID: 217983

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN/GEORGIA: Rights groups say night-time demolitions, which are part of the Baku facelift, violate property rights and mask backsliding democracy
  • Date: 15th August 2011
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (AUGUST 15, 2011) (REUTERS) BAKU SKYLINE AND CITY CENTER ALONG CASPIAN SEA BAY NEW OFFICE AND RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN CENTRAL BAKU VARIOUS OF DEMOLISHED BUILDINGS HOUSING INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY (IPD) VARIOUS OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS CLEARING DEBRIS VARIOUS OF CLEANING WORKS ON DEMOLITION SITE INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY (IPD) ACTIVIS
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia, Azerbaijan
  • City:
  • Country: Azerbaijan Georgia
  • Topics: Business,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1TWGEHJC721L6YGR6MPL77V2K
  • Story Text: Authorities in Azerbaijan have demolished the office of a human rights group as part of a campaign, drawing condemnation from the European Union.
    The building, housing the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) as well as an anti-landmine group and a women's crisis centre, was torn down after dark on Thursday ((Aug 11) without warning, IPD activist Azad Isazade told Reuters.
    "They (the workers) broke into the building, started looting our property including tables, chairs, TV sets and an air conditioner. They took all these out via the windows. After I stared arguing and went out into street and left the territory of the office their excavator simply demolished the roof of the office and all the other property was buried under the ruins of the building," said Isazade, who was at work at the time.
    The building was earmarked for demolition, but New York-based Human Rights Watch said the owner, IPD director Leyla Yunus and her husband had obtained an injunction in May 2011 from a local economic court pending a final court decision.
    Flush with the proceeds of oil and gas sales from reserves in the Caspian Sea, authorities under Azeri strongman Ilham Aliyev are transforming the capital Baku from an ex-Soviet backwater to a gleaming coastal capital for an emerging jet-set.
    To make room, some old neighbourhoods have been swept away in a demolition campaign that has drawn condemnation from rights groups, most notably IPD.
    Critics say Baku's transformation, paid for by petrodollars that have driven rapid economic growth over the past decade, masks a serious regression in democratic rights under Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar in 2003.
    The European Union's office in Azerbaijan issued a statement saying it "deplores" the demolition, made worse by the fact it took place in spite of the court injunction, while the owner was abroad and without the possibility of removing private and professional belongings from the premises.
    Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the night-time demolition, without warning or allowing the tenants to remove personal property, suggested that the authorities were looking to punish Yunus for her work defending people's property.
    It has cited cases of apartment buildings torn down while court challenges were still pending, their residents detained at night by police.
    "It's hard to think of any acceptable explanation for the office demolition that takes place without any prior warning, at nighttime, without providing any recourse to the office tenants. There is no reasonable explanation for this. The Azerbaijan government has clearly violated the right, property rights of Leila Yunus," the HRW representative in South Caucasus, Giorgi Gogia told Reuters in Tbilisi, Georgia.
    HRW says the demolition campaign has affected hundreds, possibly thousands, of homeowners and residents, and violated property rights and that the compensation offered in many cases is far below the market value for property in central Baku.
    "Whether it was a message towards Leyla Yunus or the broader civil society in Azerbaijan, this definitely sends the very chilling message to everybody else in the country. Leyla Yunus was and is one of the leading NGO activists who was working on protecting and is still working on protecting the property rights in Azerbaijan," Gogia added.
    Isazade said officials from the Baku mayor's office and the State Property Committee, who were present during the demolition, had said there was a gas leak in the building and cited plans to demolish a number of old buildings in the area.
    Neither the mayor's office nor the State Property Committee could be reached for comment.
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