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“The whole territory of Baku center, starting from the Academic Drama Theatre and up the street towards Narimonov Avenue, all the inner streets will be fenced, some with heavy metal sheets and others with iron grids. The territory reminds slums after the demolishment. And now they have decided to conceal that picture with a fence. The fences have been partly torn down by the wind which does not calm down for the recent days. The inhabitants say that ‘the fences are put to hide us from the tourists who will come for the European Games’,” Azerbaijani service RFE/RL reports.

According to the inhabitants, the scene looks as if a bomb has dropped there. That is why they want to hide that. This is all because of the European Games. They did not manage to pull them down in time, so they decided to conceal them. They pulled down the houses and now are going to put up banners to make everything look beautiful.

“They have not managed to fence the majority of the demolished houses yet. That is why the slums still show. Moreover, not only the ruins but also slogans written on the walls of half-destroyed houses that earlier were unnoticed came on display. Walking around the territories, one can notice such slogans as ‘No dictatorship, democracy!’ ‘We won’t move!’ ‘Don’t pull down.’ Whole works of fine art can be seen on the walls in some streets,” the article reads.

One of the inhabitants, Vagif Aliyev, says he is one of the heads of the dozens of families that refused to move. “They torture people. They have been lying to us for more than a year. For one occasion they make wrong measurements of the quadrature, for the other – write the wrong measures. They do what they want. I live with my wife and the families of our 3 sons in a house of 60 square meters. We renovated it and live there. Good or bad, it is our house. Now they will kick me out and give 1,500 manats for each square meter. Where can I buy a house for 4 families with that sum? They must either give them a separate dwelling space, or I refuse to leave. They say they will do that forcefully. In that case I will have to live in the street at my age,” he said.

According to the article, Jamila Aliyeva, who also refuses to leave her home, says that she does not know what will happen next, “The Games are due by June. Those Games are necessary for the government, not us. The people are not paid because that money is spent on the Games.” 

The Executives of Yasamal district said the fences are put so that garbage does not gather on the demolished territories. As for the moving of the inhabitants, they did not have certain information, the article reads.

According to the article, the demolition of the houses in “Sovetski” has begun since last year. The government offers the inhabitants 1500 manats for each square meter. Those who did not agree to those conditions have held protests for several times. The official agencies say a park and a road will be built on the old houses’ place. The demolition is planned to accomplish in three years’ time.