Press Review - 12 February 2018

The justification of the Azerbaijan President"s participation in the early presidential elections, a look at the activities of the authorities, and the growth of the scale of self-construction are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the participation of Ilham Aliyev in the early presidential elections, recalling that this time the term of the government will last 7 years.

During the 14 years of Ilham Aliyev's rule, 231 billion dollars was invested in the country, the foreign exchange stock increased to 44 billion, the economy grew 3.2-fold, the non-oil sector grew 2.8-fold, and non-oil exports grew 4.1-fold.

The website Azadliqinfo.az writes that the current government hides the existing problems or reduces their scope and also conducts a self-congratulatory campaign.

All this is done against the background of a lack of personal freedom, legal equality, or the right to free elections. This authority will soon put monuments to pipes, the author writes. Dissenters with this can leave the country, the author writes.

The newspaper Novoye Vremya published an article on the problem of self-construction. The landslide that occurred on the Bayil slope again drew attention to this problem.

These houses should be demolished, or should be registered as legal ones. In March 2011, the issue of illegal buildings was already raised. Their number, according to the then estimated, reached about 400 thousand only in Baku.

Many of them were located in restricted zones - along the railways, on the lands of the State Oil Company, etc.

Attempts to evict people from illegal buildings often ended in clashes. It was clear that the problem could not be solved in this way. People live in uncertainty for many years through the fault of certain officials or state bodies.