Located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia, Azerbaijan is secular, oil-rich, and well developed. It is run by the Aliyev family who stand accused of international money laundering, the bribery of high ranking EU politicians and officials, and human rights violations. Ruling with an authoritarian and vice-like grip, Aliyev regularly harasses, beats, and imprisons journalists who speak out against the regime.
In a poor, suburban neighbourhood in the capital city of Baku, citizens and residents are fighting for the right to save their homes from demolition. The ‘Shanghai’ district of the city runs either side of the railway and is home to thousands of low-income families that have lived there for over 60 years. Whilst they don’t have papers or documents to authorise their dwellings, the residents have never been asked to provide them and they pay for all of the public services they use including water, gas, and electricity.
One resident states: “It is impossible to put a stone on a stone here without a person from the municipality, I paid for this house, I pay for the electricity, for gas and water, so I think I have a right to demand appropriate compensation.”
In 2017, the government led by Ilham Aliyev announced that the entire area would be demolished and they started with the houses that lay immediately adjacent to the railroad. Compensation that has been offered to some of the residents but it is not enough to purchase or build another property, with the offers falling well below the market rate. Residents in other areas of the city that have faced eviction and demolition of their properties were offered a higher rate of remuneration, but those living in Shanghai have not been extended the same courtesy. With offers around the $500 per square metre mark, many residents will be made homeless or forced to move out of the city and away from any source of income that they might have.
A spokesman for the district said that the root of the issue lay with the previous government who let the people build on the land unchecked and without permission. Now, generations later residents face eviction with little guarantee that they will receive proper compensation, and if they do they know it is not enough for them to relocate.
For now, the future of the Shanghai residents hangs in the balance- children play by the railway at risk of injury or death from passing trains and hundreds of families struggle with the risk of being made homeless.
This story of gentrification, social cleansing, and the shameful treatment of citizens is being echoed 2500 km away in Tirana, Albania. Under the orders of Prime Minister Edi Rama, hundreds of illegal houses are being demolished to make way for the construction of a new road.
Residents in the Astir neighbourhood of Tirana settled in the area over 20 years ago, during a time of political and social upheaval. Since then, many have acquired documents and many more have been pursuing an expensive and lengthy legalisation procedure implemented by the government that would allow them to legalise the property that they own. In addition to this, the citizens pay taxes as well as water and electricity, all with the documents to prove it.
One day, government officials came to the neighbourhood and started marking crosses on people’s doors without permission or paperwork. When residents asked what was happening, they stated that their homes were due to be demolished in a few days. As a result, the local residents took to the streets to protest.
The Rama administration, a “hybrid regime” has been accused of a high degree of corruption when it comes to public tenders. In the case of Astir, the tender to construct the road was found to have been won by a ghost company that was set up with forged American papers. Despite this, Rama gave the company two tenders worth EUR 30 million. Eventually, when the scandal was publicised and under threat of a US investigation, the government ceased the demolitions and cancelled a part of the bid. But for how long?
The citizens of Astir wake every morning not knowing how long they will have a home to come back to. Despite their efforts, including the paying of fees and taxes to the Municipality to legalise their homes, they have been called “cavemen” and “barbarians” by the mayor of Tirana, and there is no mention of any formal process or means of gaining compensation. Instead, they cut power to a number of homes forcing them to leave and engineered fake meetings with “residents” who said they were very happy with how the government was handling the situation.
Both Rama and Aliyev have taken similar approaches to cleansing their capital cities of undesirable neighbourhoods. The difference is that at least the residents of Shanghai have been told that they will receive compensation for their illegal properties- something the Albanian government is refusing to do. The need for modernisation as well as deeply ingrained corruption has overtaken the responsibility of taking care of the citizens of the country. With both areas home to large populations of ethnic minorities, be they Roma or Talysh, one has to wonder how much of this attitude towards inhabitants is to do with prejudice, rather than the need for development and progression.
