Press Review December 29, 2017

The development of the country's non-oil sector, the problems faced by residents in the demolition of houses, and the authorities' view of the main problems of the country are the leading topics of today's press.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the task of doubling the export of agricultural products. It is agriculture that takes the leading position in the development of the non-oil sector. This partly solves the issue of employment, the author believes. The article contains official statistics, according to which for the 11 months of this year in the agrarian region, products worth 6 billion 200 million manats were produced, of which 3 billion 258 million manats fell on livestock production, and 2 billion 942 million manats - on plant growing.

The newspaper Echo published an article titled Demolition of Houses in Baku: Housing Assessment against the Constitution of the Country. Some time ago amendments to the law were adopted, according to which it is not the owner but the executor who should assess the housing to be demolished, which, in fact, is a violation of property rights, the inviolability of which is guaranteed by the Constitution. In the legislation there is a serious gap regarding the evaluation of the demolished housing, and this point creates big problems for the residents. That is, citizens living on the outskirts of the capital and those whose apartments are in the center of Baku will receive the same compensation in the amount of 1.5 thousand manats per square meter of living space, although the market price for apartments in different parts of the city is very different. In Azerbaijan, ownership is very vulnerable, and in fact it is not protected by law, and any citizen can become a victim of demolition.

The website Azadliq.info writes that the authorities take the attention of citizens from the main problems, switching it to secondary ones. The people were forced to rejoice at the most miserable successes in the last 24 years. That is, a group of people gives their personal successes for the success of the nation. The author gives an example, starting from Formula-1 to other "achievements" in the form of including dolma (a kind of Azerbaijani national food) in the UNESCO list. However, this does not change the essence of the fact that Karabakh still remains occupied, the author believes. -0-