08:46, 10 January 2019

Defenders of "Ak-Gel" Park demand to cancel Makhachkala development rules

A land plot in the "Ak-Gel" Park. Makhachkala. Photo by Patimat Makhmudova for the "Caucasian Knot"

The Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan has begun considering a new lawsuit lodged by residents of Makhachkala against the construction of a temple in the "Ak-Gel" Park. They have reported violations in adopting the build-up rules of Makhachkala.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Makhachkala residents are against the construction of an Orthodox cathedral in a park near Lake Ak-Gel. In their opinion, this place should remain a green zone, since the city has very few open public spaces in the city. On December 29, 2017, a city court fully satisfied the demands of the activists from the "Our City" movement, who demanded to ban the construction of the temple. However, the Dagestani SC has overturned the first-instance court judgement and allowed to build the temple.

Makhachkala already has two Christian Orthodox churches – the Assumption Cathedral and the Church of Saint Prince Vladimir the Equal to the Apostles.

The new lawsuit was filed by Anna Gorbaneva and Sergey Manyshev, activists of the "Our City" movement. This time, they challenge the very fact of land allocation for the temple in the park, as Marat Ismailov, a lawyer and a civil activist, has explained.

"We've seen serious violations in the procedure for adopting the land use rules and development of the site in the 'Ak-Gel' Park, allocated for the temple," Mr Ismailov has added.

The "Our City" movement seeks to ban any construction in the "Ak-Gel" Park, Svetlana Anokhina, a journalist, has noted.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 9, 2019 at 05:20 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: CK correspondent