Police violently evict residents of Baku neighbourhood ahead of plans to demolish 120 houses
Azerbaijani police have reportedly violently dispersed protests by residents of Montin-Keshla, a town in the Narimanov district of Baku, who have been protesting the demolition of 120 houses in their community.
Independent news outlet Meydan TV reported that the residents claim that there were no documents confirming the authorities’ right to demolish the houses.
‘Here, 145 families live, and more than 120 houses are located in this area’, a Montin-Keshla resident told OC Media on the condition of anonymity.
‘No one from the authorities talked to us about this and we don’t know what will happen with the residents. We are being forced to leave the area and now we are moving’, they continued, adding that many of the houses being demolished had been there since 2005.
‘On Thursday, in front of my eyes, around five people were detained. People were forcibly kicked out of their houses, that is why they confronted police’, the resident said.
The demolition of the houses is part of the Baku City Plan, a project where Baku will construct again and the old buildings in the many streets will be demolished. As the plan has unfolded, pro-government media has downplayed how it is impacting local residents.
Pro-government TV Khazar has quoted as a representative of Azerbaijan Railways as saying that the main reason the houses were being demolished in the area is to remove obstacles around railways forcing trains to go slower when passing through the town.
The demolition of these houses has been in the pipeline since 2015, with local media reporting that there were 2,840 illegal buildings in the area — of these, 2,304 are residential buildings. At the time, the Transportation Ministry indicated that 883 buildings should be demolished immediately.
Several similar incidents have taken place in Baku before; in March, the construction company Melissa Group demolished a house in Baku’s Yasamal district while a resident was still inside. After the footage of the incident spread on social media, the foreman and driver of the excavator carrying out the demolition work were detained, in addition to the head ofthe construction company.
In February, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) fined the Azerbaijani government approximately €1.7 million ($1.8 million) for illegally demolishing a number of properties in central Baku in 2010 in order to create a new park.
Aytan Farhadova
