News of Baku

MAYOR CLAIMS FULL PRESIDENTIAL SUPPORT

Since being appointed as Mayor of Baku in late January, Hajibala Abutalibov has ordered to raze over 25,000 structures he believes were illegally built.

Addressing his first news conference Thursday, the new mayor said the process of demolition would last until all of such buildings are destroyed. This having been done, Baku will assume the appearance it used to have in the 80s, he said.

Mr. Abutalibov told journalists that the destroyed buildings also included some privatized ones. Most of such structures were erected in non-habitable places, over underground water or gas pipelines, and will, therefore, be razed, he said.

Some 200 illegal buildings surrounding the Boyuk Shor lake will be demolished too, the mayor said.

Touching upon sharp public outrage caused by the mayor's actions, he said the damage incurred by the population would be reimbursed by those who sanctioned such construction.

The Mayor said the President was aware of the changes he had launched and fully approves them.

Mr. Abutalibov added that there were reasons for removing the water spring in the Alley of Martyrs. The spring was a gift from Turkish government and its destruction provoked public outcry, while Turkish embassy even issued a protest note to the authorities.

The Mayor said there was a 20-year-old water pipeline running underneath the spring. Specialists had been warning the city authorities that a leak in the pipe could flood the Alley of Martyrs and leave an adjacent residential area without water for a long time.

Mr. Abutalibov said he had talked to the mosque as to re-locating the spring into the mosque courtyard, but was informed that there was already one there.

He added that he had repeatedly tried to meet with Turkish ambassador and even wrote to him, but without much result.

In the early hours on April 17, the water pipe broke up. To make things worse, an underlying gas pipeline was also damaged.

According to the mayor, removal of the water spring has averted a serious catastrophe.

Mosque razed

The incompletely built "Mirtagi Agha" mosque in the Ahmadli district of Baku has also been destroyed as an illegally built structure, the mayor said.

He handed out copies of documents certifying that construction of the mosque was carried out contrary to prohibitions of city authorities and was illegal from the very beginning.

"It is time to put an end to illegal structures in the capital", he said and added that it does not at all mean that he is opposed to religion.

"I am simply against those who are trying to make a fortune by this", he said.

Newspaper sued

"Yeni Zaman" newspaper’s correspondent Fahraddin Azimov told a news conference last week that Mayor's office chief-of-staff Ali Hajiyev had filed a lawsuit demanding closure of the "Yeni Zaman" newspaper.

He went on to say that all the critical materials he had written about the new mayor were based on facts.