Private companies developed their businesses using dug-up gardens and parks. Now Baku city authorities say they plan to increase urban green space to 8 square meters per person by 2040.
Baku, a city once called a “green barrier” by Soviet geophysicist Alexander Gorodnitsky, is currently graying out. Since independence in 1991, the green urban areas of the capital of Azerbaijan have shrunk almost 90 percent.
Umayra Taghiyeva, Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, said in a speech this summer that the norm for urban green space per person is 20-25 square meters. In Baku, 5 square meters of green space per person is available.
According to State Urban Planning rules, the green area in a micro district or neighborhood should not be less than 6 square meters per person. So how did the green zone in Baku, which is an important factor in the fight against global warming, decrease so much?
A 2009 article published in the “Mədəniyyət” newspaper, the official outlet of the Ministry of Culture, stated that in 1980 public green space in Baku was 9,520 hectares. Firdovsi Aliyev, Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, said in 2022 that the green area in Baku was 920 hectares, a decrease of almost 90 percent. Trees were chopped down for new buildings, and new parks in the center city were mainly paved with stones.
One of the most memorable incidents of tree cutting happened in olive gardens located in Binagadi district. In 2008, Agil Khalil, a 24-year-old journalist working for “Azadliq” newspaper, was attacked and beaten by two people while reporting about trees being cut. The attackers put his camera strap around Khalil’s throat as if to strangle him.
A European Court of Human Rights decision says the Binagadi prosecutor's office offered to withdraw Agil Khalil's complaint and reach an agreement with his attackers, Dagbey Allahverdiyev and Akif Chovdarov, who were high-ranking employees in the Ministry of National Security.
After that beating, Khalil was followed by non-uniformed people, and less than a month later was stabbed in the heart. He survived and emigrated to France. The government of Azerbaijan paid 25,000 euros compensation to Khalil. Luxury villas were built where the trees were cut, Khalil told Abzas Media.
Several buildings have been constructed in the last 17 years on the grounds of Zeytun Garden. One is a 12,000 square meter mosque named after former president Heydar Aliyev, father of current president Ilham Alizev. He signed the decree on construction of the mosque on August 18, 2012. According to satellite images, equipment was brought to the area earlier in June and trees were cut down.
The Baku City Executive Authority was responsible for allocation of the land plot for the mosque. A lawyer told “Abzas Media” that cutting the trees before the address for the mosque was announced was illegal.
Before 2009, there were olive trees on what is now the site of the Zeytun Bagi restaurant at 11d Hamza Babishov Street, Binagadi District. It is in a 20-hectare garden with 1,000 square meters of indoor space and 2,000 square meters of open space.
Until August 2019, the restaurant belonged to Hajar Seminar Hasanova, the niece of Beyler Eyyubov, the head of President Ilham Aliyev's security service. Hasanova transferred the restaurant to her son, Alashraf Hasanov.
Environmentalist Anvar Aliyev, head of the Ecogeography Department of the Institute of Geography, says Baku has become one of the most polluted cities in the world:
"There is no green left in Baku. 85% of the 1.9 million cars in Azerbaijan are in Baku. Baku is on the World Health Organization list of the most polluted cities in the world. The air quality in Baku is also very bad, very harsh.”
According to the “State Urban Planning Norms and Regulations”, the Baku General Plan increases the amount of urban green space to 8 square meters per person by 2040. But limited information about the master plan raises questions on if and how it will happen.
The Baku City Executive Authority has not answered questions from “Abzas Media" about green areas.
