Baku IDPs stage protest against living in building in critical condition

IDPs living in military barracks in Baku held a protest rally on October 10 demanding that they be given normal apartments: officials promised to fulfill their demand by the end of the year, the Caucasian Knot says.

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“No schools, no hospitals, no buses” 

Protesters say that the building in which they live in now is in disrepair. Moreover, it is located almost outside the city, where there are no schools, hospitals or regular means of public transportation.

“30 children can’t go to school,” said one of the participants in the action to Turan news agency.

Earlier, the IDPs were promised apartments in ‘Gobu Park’ – a complex built specially for this purpose, however this has yet to happen. 

The State Committee for Work with Refugees promised that the problem will be solved, and by the end of the year more than 3,700 internally displaced persons will receive housing.

Officials noted that the protesters were offered to be settled in temporarily rented apartments, but they refused.

Temporary housing for 25 years

According to official figures, in the early 1990s, due to the Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, about a million people lost their homes and became refugees and internally displaced persons.  They were temporarily resettled as necessary – in dormitories, resorts, schools.  

25 years have passed since then, but many still live in these “temporary” shelters.  The conditions there are usually very poor.

They are gradually being moved to new homes, but this process is rather slow, which in turn gives rise to discontent amongst the IDP population of the country.