Events around the "House of Molokans" require a revision of the state's attitude to architectural history

The Salaam Cinema film amateurs" society declared its conditions, after which they, about 200 young Azerbaijani citizens, will leave the occupied old building in the central, Nasimi district of Baku, at the intersection of Suleyman Rustam St., 10 and Suleyman Rahimov, near the "28 Mall" shopping center.

In a conversation with Turan, the leader of the society Ilkin Huseynov said we are waiting for the official status of a historical or architectural monument, protected by the state. We will not agree to leave if the building is not taken away from its formal owner, Valeh Gasimov, who apparently is the figure behind whom the true owner of the house stands. He intends to destroy this house in order to build a profitable other building in its place in the center of the city.

Gasimov began destructive work, so we do not believe in his assurances about the preservation of the building. The words of the first vice-president M. Aliyeva published in the media about the need to preserve the building do not certify the official state document about taking the object under state protection. We demand that the privatization of the building be recognized as a private individual, since this house has always been public property.

http://www.contact.az/ext/news/2019/5/free/Social/ru/80842.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG9P0u3L21A

Turan asked two former officials of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, who answered our questions, provided they did not disclose their names. The first former official recalled that without the consent of the state, no building in the country could be privatized; this procedure is carried out with the participation of two government departments. Both our informants hinted that such a large building in the center of Baku could be privatized only by people from a very narrow circle of people who have strong connections and power. "A businessman unknown to society, whose name appears as the formal owner of the building, is in fact a dummy," the expert believes.

Historically, the old three-storey house belonged to the Azerbaijani Molokans. In Soviet times, the Baku radio center was located there; the building was on the balance paper of the Ministry of Communications. When the Communications Minister was Ali Abbasov, the building was still owned by the Ministry of Communications, and was privatized under Abbasov. The large-scale privatization of the vast majority of the real estate of this ministry (including the post office buildings throughout the country) was conducted by Minister Nadyr Ahmedov, the predecessor of Ali Abbasov. The latter was dismissed from his post in 2015 because of the exposure and subsequent condemnation of the terms of the opinion of a group of telecommunications officers and officers of the Ministry of National Security who extorted money from major businesspersons and officials.

The second former official ruled out the possibility of privatizing any building that has the status of an object protected by the state because of its historical or architectural value. Therefore, the former Molokan prayer house does not have state protection and was easily privatized by a powerful person, whose name was not disclosed. Experts do not admit that Valeh Gasimov is the true owner.

"Salaam Cinema" requires giving the building the status of an object protected by the state. However, in the Azerbaijani reality, the presence of such a document does not guarantee its safety, Turan was told by the human rights activist Aytekin Imranova, specializing in this area.

"With the exception of certain monuments in Azerbaijan, the historical and cultural heritage is not protected. Although I cannot say the same, since the most famous monuments are subject to undesirable operations over time. For example, the same happened with the Maiden's Tower, repair and restoration works has been lasting for years on the territory of Icheri Sheher. The status of the protected area is not observed. Municipalities and other structures capture the territories of nature reserves, under the guise of restoration, monuments are subjected to ongoing repairs, and the historical appearance of the monuments is destroyed, as they are faced with modern materials. The worst thing is that under the guise of creating some kind of infrastructure or communications, dozens of monuments were destroyed. For example, under the pretext of "Winter Boulevard", dozens of historical monuments brought to the state registry of the country were demolished on the streets of Fizuli, S. Badalbeyli, M. Aliyev, and said Imranova.

What common sense, what logic can explain the destruction of more than a hundred monuments in the historic quarter, called Soviet? The ruins of ancient buildings discovered during the demolition in the deeper layers of the earth, were hastily concreted, the historical view of the monuments have been destroyed, and it is called the arrangement. Despite the existence of legislative acts, as well as the accession of Azerbaijan in this area to international documents, the situation in this area is deplorable. The specialized structures created in the Soviet era, the material and technical base, experienced personnel, technology, norms and standards were destroyed, and nothing new was created instead.

http://www.contact.az/ext/news/2019/5/free/Interview/ru/80844.htm

In July 2017 in Baku, the district authorities of the city destroyed the old Shiite mosque Haji Javad, on the wall of which hung a sign about the protection of the state. For the destruction of this mosque, the president dismissed Ibrahim Mehdiyev, the chief executive of the Yasamal district, from his post. More precisely, the demolished mosque was his last "achievement", before that he had destroyed many other valuable buildings and trees. Mehdiyev was fired, but it is already impossible to return the historical monument...

The attitude of the state to the historical buildings in the country - with and without special status, should be reviewed with tougher penalties for the unlawful destruction of these objects. Civil society is actively responding to the massive destruction of Azerbaijani architectural history, which was revealed after the news of construction work in the reserve "Icheri Sheher" and the former prayer house of Baku Molokans. Public dissatisfaction spread in social networks is accepted by the authorities for consideration, it also issues appeals to citizens soothingly. However, words are not enough...

The Salaam Cinema Society has distributed a video message to the Molokans with a proposal for cooperation:

https://ivanovka.net/%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%89%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5-%D0%BA-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9-%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%89%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B5/