Azerbaijani ‘‘hospitality’’: Police in Baku disperses tourists dancing in streets
Yesterday, employees of the Baku police dispersed a group of tourists dancing under the music that was turned on in the city center, reports the Azerbaijani news portal "Haqqin.az."
According to the site, the local people joined the tourists too. At that moment, the police employees approached them and stated that they disturbed the relaxing citizens.
"It is rather interesting that in 100 meters from the site of this action there was an event organized, it was advertising performance of "Topaz", but the police did not find this campaign violation of public order," Haqqin.az writes.
The article notes that "under the pretext of struggling for a peaceful rest, it is possible to deprive both the society and the guests from tranquility and relaxation."
"Well, dear police officer, you were ordered, to protect the peace of the residents of the capital, but why you need to bring it to senility, dispersing the foreign tourists dancing under the music at the Fountain Square? They are not oppositionist, after all! They enjoyed themselves and shared their joy with the others," the author of the article Irina Mikhaylenko writes.
She believes that such a ban will leave a very negative impression about Azerbaijan at foreigners, "which is then will not be covered by all the wonders of Baku, which, by the way, are not so much, and most of them are of a showcase nature."
"Here he is, a tourist, who reached the Internet, and immediately shared his main impressions about Baku: there is no drop of freedom in the air, this is a police state, the buskers are here persecuted here," the article reads. The author notes that in Europe busker is a regular profession, not less respected than the police because the buskers pay taxes, by the means of which the police is being paid for its salary.
"Our police also get paid by the taxpayers' money. But it behaves as if it pays the ordinary Baku citizens from its own pocket. They feel they have the upper hand. And the foreigners see all of this. They see this and they make conclusions, then they share them. Which, I'm sure repels a very solid number of people around the world from visiting Azerbaijan," the author said.
According to her, the position of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is not clear. The above mentioned Ministry has never expressed its attitude to these facts. Although it is obliged to worry about the tour-image of the country in order to create favorable conditions for the rest of the tourists in Azerbaijan.
"But maybe the point is that in reality, "cutting dough" from the state budget, which is meant for the construction of buildings of cultural interest, triggers them even more than the problem of increasing the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan?" wonders the author.