State Dares to Tear Down "Sea Fences" of Five Pirshagi Villas

The political scientist Elkhan Shahinoglu lives in a cottage in Pirshagi. Yesterday, for the first time, he managed to walk along the coast of the Caspian Sea after the local authorities demolished the fences of five local villas blocking the passage to the sea for other residents. The owners of the villas created for themselves "their own beaches" - access to the sea directly from the expensive house and swimming on the "own beach". Elkhan walked along the now opened coast for everyone and calculated that 20-30 meters of stone fences had been destroyed. The most interesting thing is that he did not notice a living soul in these villas. "They built mansions for themselves, closed the coast to others, and they themselves rest in Spain, or on the Maldives. They need villas with private beaches out of pride," the political analyst wrote on Facebook.

The journalist Semen Kastryulin and a group of his friends gather every Saturday and Sunday and go on vacation to the regions of Azerbaijan or have picnics on the Shykh coastline - in the same place for many years. They built a canopy, benches, and a stone barbecue there. In June 2019, an unknown owner drove them out of there, destroying the corner built by Semen for free recreation of Baku people. Nearby are their own villas, the fences of which go into the water to indicate private marine properties. There are no other unassigned places on this shore. The journalist has written many times articles about the problem of those who have not earned "their own beach", and read the annual assurances of the authorities about the ban on blocking the coast for private needs and commercial benefits. The assurances remain on paper.

"It is a great road along which the wife of a rich man will descend by car to the sea. Such is the beach from which we were expelled." With this explanation, Kastryulin posted this photo on the net.

"Leyla Aliyeva returns the beaches to the people," an article appeared in a local website under such a headline, which on August 1, 2019 reported that "taking into account the wishes of residents and numerous guests of the capital, and their many appeals, Leyla Aliyeva initiated the creation of public beaches on coastal areas as alternatives to private recreation centers and paid beaches.

The first of them with an area of ​​6 hectares was created on the territory of Shykh Beach on 32 Salyan Highway (opposite the General Directorate of Customs). The coastal strip has been cleaned and landscaped, 60 canopies, six locker rooms, two showers and sanitary units, as well as pavilions, football and volleyball courts, an asphalt road to the beach, and a parking area of ​​3,500 sq.m. were built. There are benches and hammocks, as well as special containers for rubbish, and additional work has been completed.

Similar public beaches will soon open in Pirshagi and Buzovna. In general, the creation of public beaches is planned in 7 coastal areas of Baku.

Entrance to public beaches and other services is free. The order and cleanliness on the beaches will be provided by special staff," the website reported.

"Our press and the authorities annually moan about the dominance of seasonal-summer fictitious firms that block the passage to the sea with barriers. But nothing changes. It got to the point of absurdity: the President"s daughter Leyla Aliyeva, who initiated the creation of four free public beaches around Baku, took up the problem - just on those shores, bathing in which hygienists do not welcome because of the pollution of sea water there. What is it that turns out - the state cannot cope with a simple problem, cannot drive out business from the beaches, and the private person L. Aliyeva undertakes it and copes with the task that is impossible for the whole state?

It"s a shame for Azerbaijan, in which there are a lot of loud statements about our worldwide fame in sports, tolerance, etc., and the country cannot solve a primitive issue that could be solved at the level of the local police department," the Azerbaijani blogger writes in the Moscow portal Caucasian Knot.

The publicly topical subjects in society show the state level. Every summer, Azerbaijan flounders about the problem of seized beaches. Not daring to destroy illegal fences stretching into the sea, the state decided to create public beaches open to the public. And what will happen to the demolished "sea fences"? Unidentified persons who built them will restore their "marine possessions" after the completion of the annual public populist campaign? Elkhan Shahinoglu emphasizes that the destroyed fences he saw were the result of the activity of social networks. He agrees with the demand of the people for the complete, along the entire coastline, liberation of the coast from the illegal invaders.

The problem of the seized coast is raised by individual activists. One of them is blogger Mehman Huseynov. He made video reports of such private possessions, after which he was arrested, beaten, convicted and then convicted again, but the blogger interfered with the intention of the prison authorities by conducting a hunger strike in the jail.

The blogger just wanted to execute the decree signed by Heydar Aliyev "On several measures to regulate the Caspian Sea coastline in the Republic of Azerbaijan" (January 13, 2003).

"The decree was issued after the appeal of the citizens of the republic to the head of state. People complained that the seashore was leased or used for private individuals and legal entities, thus, ordinary citizens could not use the beaches and relax on the seashore. In order to ensure the right of citizens to have a rest on the seashore, the National Leader instructed the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and a number of other state structures to take these lands from individuals and legal entities in accordance with the current legislation of Azerbaijan. However, unfortunately, over the past time this was not done, but rather, the remaining land along the coast was also sold, rented and surrounded by high fences.

And it seems that no one can cope with this problem. It is worth asking any resident of a coastal village, whose villa blocks the sea view, and the answer will be the same, naming the name of one or another official ...", z.sputniknews.ru wrote in 2017.