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On 19 May, 2015 a fire tore through a 16-story residential buliding in Baku. This led to the deaths of at least sixteen of its residents and the injury of fifty of the people living there. This fire was not the first, with one taking place on 10 April near Zikh Highway. The fires exacerbated by a polyurethane Styrofoam facade that has been applied to the exterior of approximately 120 structures. While the city ordinances state the facade is intended to be stone, much instead has been made of synthetic materials, news website Silk Road Reporters reports.

According to the article, the facade is produced by the Aliyev regime-connected firm Global Construction, the firm connected to this tragedy has been a recipient of government largess. According to an exposure by now-jailed journalist Khadija Ismayilova, the firm was a recipient of $540 million in loans from the International Bank of Azerbaijan. Moreover, this firm executed important government contracts such as the construction of the Academy of Frontier Troops Building Complex and the Administrative Building for Azerbaijan Republic State Migration Service.

According to the information, while the highly powerful Ministry of Emergency Situations ruled out flammability of the materials, it appears they were wrong. Moreover, the Minister, Kamaladdin Heydarov, has been in office since 2006. This makes him responsible for the approval and continuation of these projects despite the ongoing fires.

''While parts of Baku burn now, it may be the whole city in the future if preventative measures are not taken by the Aliev regime,'' the article reads.

The news agency Turan says that the abusive attack of the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Abid Sharifov against the journalist, who was carrying out his professional work, became yet another indicator of state officials' attitude towards the principles of media freedom. On Saturday during the meeting with journalists by the burned-out 16-story building, to the question which company will carry out the restoration of the building, Sharifov answered roughly, "It’s none of your business! Why should you know who? Say, Alabala. We will decide ourselves which company will. The press has got nothing to do with that!" Later, Sharifov decided to “correct” himself adding, "My firm! Go and write this!"

The material reads that Sharifov's irritation was absolutely groundless, because the question was quite reasonable: the citizens need to know which company will repair the building, whether it has the experience, whether it is competent and so on. The companies should be selected on a tender basis, and if the government selects the contractor by itself, it must inform the public. "In any civilized country, the official would have quickly lost the post after such an escapade. More recently, the Ukrainian oligarch and the governor of Dnepropetrovsk Kolomoisky was fired after insulting a journalist. Such behavior was condemned by the President, and Kolomoisky had to leave. In Azerbaijan, rudeness against the media has long been the norm. With all this, Abid Sharifov might just as well tell the truth. Many government officials, in violation of the laws, do business. So, in addition to purely ethical aspects, there is also the factor of the state officials’ personal interest," the news agency sums up.

Haqqin.az writes that a journalist and any citizen have the right to know that at least because they are taxpayers whose money will be used to carry out works directly connected with his and his family’s safety. “Actually, the company – about which the journalist was not supposed to know (because it was not his ‘damn business’) – will later use this journalist’s money to carry out works on which the lives of his whole family, relatives and friends will later depend in other residential buildings. And all the journalist is allowed to know about the firm he enriches by paying taxes and to which he trusts his life, is the name ‘Alabala’,” the article reads. Haqqin.az adds that Sharifov behaves like a thief in law rather than a politician.

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