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In the center of Baku near Malakan kindergarten today the premises on Gajibekov str. 7 belonging to Makhir Azizov have been demolished by an order of the executive of Sabail district of Baku. No court order and warning was presented. According to the Azerbaijani news portal Haqqin.az the owner of the building provided the information about the incident.

“Today, from the morning on, the demolition of my own double room office at area of 20 sq.m has been launched. Earlier it was a living space of the Armenians. After their departure in 1988, the house was demolished. My father built an office on the same place guided by the decision of the executive branch. Later in 1995 it was transferred to the Housing and Communal Services department. The building is officially registered, it has obtained even a technical passport,” Makhir Azizov notes.

He believes that the demolition of the building is carried out by the order of an official who lives in that building. “The assistant of Hacibala Abdullayev lives on the upper floor of that building. I’ve constantly encountered some rumors that he wants to destroy my premises. However, I didn’t believe. 20 days ago I was informed by t №5 Housing and Communal Services department that based on the complaints of the neighbors the building would be demolished. Once again, I didn’t believe and didn’t take information seriously. I thought that it was just an idle talk. After all, there was neither court decision, nor a written warning.”

Today, just in the morning the employees of the executive branch and Housing and Communal Services department drove KAMAZ to the building and started to throw in it the office’s furniture, equipments, air conditioner and other utensils. No act was formed. As if the things and objects they were throwing, belonged to no one.

The head of the Housing and Communal Services department of Baku’s Sabail district Hamis Aliyev to the questions raised around the issue gave unequivocal answers, “I’m not informed”, “I don’t know”, “it is unfamiliar to me”. However, according to the owner of the building and property, Makhir Azizov, Aliyev was present in the course of the whole process and furthermore everything was under his control. “During all the day when the building was evacuated and later demolished, the head of the Housing and Communal Services was standing by my side and answering my questions, “It is not my fault, I have an order from above.” The lawyer Namizad Safarov said that the executive has no right to demolish even illegal structures without presenting a court decision. This is “lawlessness,” he said.

Note that in Azerbaijan the authorities have repeatedly demolished the houses and offices of human rights defenders, journalists or activists. The most famous case was the destruction of human rights defender Leyla Yunus’ house by bulldozer on August 11, 2011, where the office of the Institute for Peace and Democracy was located.

It is noteworthy that Yunus had a court decision that prohibited the demolition of the above mentioned building. The EU Mission and the U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan expressed their concern in regard to the illegal demolition of the building of Institute for Peace and Democracy in Baku. The statements, particularly note that the situation is complicated by the fact the owners and members of the Institute were not allowed to take out their belongings before the demolition process, while the destruction was carried out contrary to the court’s decision.

The Azerbaijani authorities on December 18, 2011 destroyed the house of “the prisoner of conscious” Tural Abbasli. In August of 2011, the house of journalist Idrak Abbasov was as well demolished, while Abbasov himself was severely beaten. Current year the building of the Enlightenment center “Kamil Vetendash” (Intelligent Citizen) was demolished, while its head Hasan Huseynli got arrested, on March 3, 2014 the authorities demolished a private house which was rented by Azerbaijani Popular Front Party and so on.