On November 18, 2021, a letter was distributed to the residents of a building in Baku with the signature of Etibar Ahmadov, the deputy head of the Khatai District Executive Power.
According to the document, a commission was established and they decided that the relocation of residential houses and non-residential areas located at the intersection of Yusif Safarov and Afiyaddin Jalilov streets should begin.
Without taking into account the opinion of the residents, just five days after the notification, on November 23, the courtyard of the building started to be demolished. The justification is related to the expansion of the road junction and the implementation of improvement works in the area.
Owners of the apartments should agree to be paid 2,200 AZN per square meter, regardless of the area, floor, and repair of the apartments, and owners of non-residential facilities located on the first and second floors will be paid 2,500 AZN per square meter.
Residents were not satisfied with the choice taken on their behalf.
In their complaints, they indicated that the compensation offered to them for leaving their apartments was too low. In the court decision, the judge investigating the case ruled that the building should not be demolished, and the residents’ apartments should not be touched until the final decision on the case is made.
Even though that decision is still valid today, on the morning of July 28, with the participation of Zulfali Ismayilov, the department head of the Baku City Executive Authority, the doors of the residents’ apartments were broken and the inside was destroyed. Houses were also demolished.
Panah Imanov, head of the department of socio-political and humanitarian issues of the Khatai District Executive Authority, affirms that the building in question is being demolished due to state interests, and there are official orders for this.
The apartment owners demand that the officials of the Baku City Executive Authority and Khatai District Executive Authority, who participated in the destruction of the property, to be brought to criminal responsibility.
The reason for the eviction of the residents and demolition of the building is unclear: while the government affirms that it is for the construction of a new “Victory Museum”, it is said in the streets of Baku that in fact the building is being demolished because it disrupts the daily route of President Ilham Aliyev.
