Public working group to protect property rights of citizens established in Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan, the Civil Movement for Democracy "Public Chamber" (CMDPC) has established a special working group on violation of property rights of citizens. It included experts of civil society in various fields.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the decision on establishment of such a working group was adopted on November 19, following the public discussions on the issue of property rights violations, organized by the CMDPC at the headquarters of the "Musavat" Party.

On Tuesday, December 13, during a roundtable at the Baku Media Centre, the CMDPC has presented the members of the working group economists Rovshan Guliev, Neimat Kerimli, Ilham Guseinli, lawyer Fakhraddin Mekhtiev, and activist Bashkhianum Abbasova. In the nearest future, the group will include a number of other experts. The group will investigate and summarize facts of violation of property rights and assistance for citizens to protect their rights.

"For the last 18 years, violation of property rights remains one of the important problems of Azerbaijan. During that time, hundreds of thousands of people have been deprived of property. In recent years, this process has gained even more large-scale nature," said Ali Kerimli, the member of the coordinating council of the CMDPC, the leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA).

According to the PFPA's leader, a new wave of attack on property rights began under the pretext of "improvement and preparation" for the international song contest 'Eurovision-2012', which would be conducted in Baku next May. Ali Kerimli announced the CMDPC intention to launch a campaign to collect signatures demanding to stop violation of property rights.

Lawyer Fakhraddin Mekhtiev, the member of the working group, has emphasized that "violation of property rights of citizens is carried out not only by withdrawal of their property." "Another form of violation is represented by the fact that people cannot obtain state acts on their property rights for their actual houses and buildings for commercial purposes," said the expert. He has noted that fact was caused by extortion of large amounts of bribes from citizens to register their property rights.

Oktai Gyulalyev, the member of the civil society "Kura", has focused on violation of property rights of citizens aggrieved by last year's water flood at the Kura and Araz Rivers in lowland areas of the country. Thus, according to him, new houses for only 2700 families were built, while the number of people, who lost their houses, is so much higher.

However, officials of the executive power of Baku city deny facts of violation of property rights. The secretariat of the Mayor's office has reported that demolition of houses is aimed at state needs and development, and citizens receive "fair compensations."

Meanwhile, according to Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), this year 60,000 persons were deprived of their property rights, when they were forced to evict from their houses under the pretext of development and without adequate compensation. According to Leila Yunus, another 50,000 persons will face the same situation.