15:56 - 23.01.2018

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An entrepreneur wants to construct without a required permission a restaurant on Nizami Street (Torgovaya) in the centre of Baku under the ADIDAS shop in a building, which is an official fallout shelter of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan.

 

The tenants of the house located on 66, Nizami Street, say they were aware of the work underway in the basement of their house. The businessman, however, said the basement is just under repairs and no new facility will be opened there.

 

 

"So far work has been carried out in quiet regime and we made no claims. But now we’re concerned much that the bearing walls in the basement are pulled down within repair work that creates a serious risk for the building. We’ve repeatedly addressed to the entrepreneur with a request to suspend the demolition, but there was no effect. In this regard, the house residents applied on the occasion to the Ministry, and it was revealed that the basement is an official fallout shelter of the latter and its privatization is illegal. At that, the entrepreneur, presenting a paper, issued in 2011, on privatization of the facility, filed a lawsuit in court for compensation of damage in the amount of 360,000 manats caused to him by the residents. The businessman justifies the amount of the compensation with the fact that he could earn this amount, if the facility would have been rented for 5,000 manats a month for the last 72 months," the tenants said.

 

The court did not sustain the claim on compensation from the house tenants, but forbade taking measures on the limitation of property rights.

 

 

According to the tenants, the facility was privatized for Nazila Mammadova (the wife of businessman Magerram). The entrepreneur presented a paper on privatization of the 145 sq m area, while the total area of the basement exceeds 400 sq m. During repairs it was removed about 40 trucks of construction waste from the basement, including special anti-radiation doors with thickness of 50 cm, destroyed the ventilation system, dismantled concrete floor with thickness of 0.50 m with the purpose to increase the height of the premises.

 

Despite the fact that the MES recommended to stop the demolition, the entrepreneur continues the process. The house tenants are seriously concerned about not only the illegal actions of the businessman, but also about the fate of the building, moreover, that the Ministry’s experts from stressed the possible consequences of the demolition of the load-bearing walls and recommended to take that into account.

 

 

The tenants see the only possible solution to this problem in the collective appeal to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The appeal has already been prepared.