In Baku, building of Institute for Peace and Democracy demolished

Today, in the centre of Baku a one-storey building, which houses the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), headed by Leila Yunus, well-known human rights activist, was demolished.

Demolition of the building was a complete surprise for human rights activists. About 8:00 p.m. the building No. 38 in Shamsi Badalbeili Street in Baku, was approached by the workers and the officials from the Mayoralty and the State Committee for State Property Management.

"They told me that they would demolish the adjacent building, and asked to leave our office, so that a random stone or balk would not fall on our heads. An arrived excavator began to demolish our building," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by psychologist Azad Isazade, the staff member of the IPD.

According to him, all requests and appeals to the workers to provide the opportunity to take equipment and documents from the building had no effect. As a result, almost all property of the IPD was destroyed.

Leila Yunus herself is not in the territory of Azerbaijan. Commenting on the incident by telephone, she called the authorities' action "absolutely unreasonable savagery".

According to the IPD personnel's story, the officials motivate the demolition of the building by need to clear the site for the construction of Winter Boulevard. According to Azad Isazade, the process of demolition was led by Yusif Gambarov, official from the State Committee for State Property Management, and Zulfali Ismailov, official from the Baku Mayoralty. They instructed the workers to demolish the building; however, they admitted that the order to demolish the building originates "from the top-ranking officials".

Comments of Yusif Gambarova and Zulfali Ismailov themselves on the reasons for demolition of the building are still not available at "Caucasian Knot" edition office.