HRW demands to stop forced evictions in Baku

The Azerbaijani authorities should immediately halt the campaign of forced evictions of Baku residents and demolition of houses in the Azerbaijan's capital. This was declared by the human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW). The human rights defenders also demanded that the government should provide fair compensation to the evicted people.

On May 6, the appropriate statement was published on the HRW's website.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in February 2012, the HRW presented a study about the facts of mass violations of property rights of Baku residents. The report 'Everything was taken away from me: forced relocations in Baku, unlawful withdrawals and destructions of property' described the facts of the forced seizure of citizens' property in four sites in Baku: behind the Palace named after Geidar Aliev, where the construction of Winter Boulevard is underway, in the territory adjacent to Flag Square, where the concert venue "Crystal Hall" was built for the song context "Eurovision-2012", in Neftyanikov Avenue (opposite to the Palace of Indoor Sports Games) and in Azadlyg Avenue (next to the former monument to Karl Marx), where multi-storied buildings are being constructed.

It should be noted that, according to the information of Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), only in 2011, 60,000 persons lost their property because of forced eviction from their houses without receiving adequate compensations under the guise of urban development. Leila Yunus believes that other 50,000 persons face the same fate.