In Baku, private taxi drivers hold protest action

On January 16, a group of Baku private taxi drivers held a protest action near the building of the Ministry of Transport of Azerbaijan. They were protesting against the Ministry's intentions to ban the use of private cars, whose drivers were not licensed to render service to the population.

The immediate reason for the action was the fact that starting from January 13, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Internal Affairs began conducting raids to identify the taxi drivers operating without licenses and on cars of old production.

According to participants of the unsanctioned rally, introduction of the new licensing rules will lead to unemployment among the drivers owning old and low-capacious cars, manufactured before 2007.

The action was stopped by the police, some people were injured, the "Contact online news" reports. No details of casualties are reported, and no information about their number is available.

After the suppression of the action, several drivers were invited to the Ministry of Transport for the negotiations, the "News of Azerbaijan" reports.

"If the ban is related to the "Eurovision" contest, then let us be banned from entering the city centre for the duration of the song contest. We also need time to bring our cars into line with the standards being implemented. Let the government import eligible cars, and we will buy them on credit. The requirement for year of manufacture for cars used as taxis should be changed. Since those cars are very expensive, and we cannot buy them," one of the drivers stated.

Representatives of the Ministry have emphasized that the standards being implemented are not the temporary ones.

"The decision was made in accordance with the classification of the European Economic Commission for passenger cars. You should buy cars on credit or work as a driver for companies rendering taxi services," the representative of the Ministry stated.

After completion of the negotiations, the drivers told the journalists, who were waiting for them, that they had no political demands. They made it clear that they were unsatisfied with the outcome of the negotiations, and they said that they would continue protest actions, the "APA" reports on the details of the negotiations.