Preservationists are accusing government agencies in Azerbaijan of architectural vandalism as the capital, Baku, prepares to host the annual United Nations climate conference.
The UN conclave of environmentalists will convene in Baku in November. Azerbaijani authorities are already hard at work sprucing up the host city. But according to local architects and others, their methods to improve the city's look are doing more harm than good.
A torrent of criticism has circulated on social media. One Baku-based architect Abdul Huseynov voiced alarm on Facebook in mid-June about touch ups to an historic building in the city center, writing that "a water-based primer intended for coating wall and ceiling, concrete and brick plastered surfaces is being used to cover stone cornices and column capitals - which is unacceptable!"
Another architect, Dilgam Ismayilov, called out government agencies and the Baku Maintenance Service, a company that has long gained contracts to carry out major renovation projects in the capital, alleging that up to 200 buildings in Baku have been restored using improper techniques and materials.
"Enough already!" he wrote in one post. "Will someone put an end to this? This [the latest makeover] is directly hostile to this city, this city's history."
Baku Maintenance Service representatives issued a statement defending the company's work, calling the social media criticism "groundless."
Meanwhile, officials have heard the criticism and reacted - to a point. The chief of Baku's municipal Architecture and Urban Planning Department, Riad Gasimov, announced some renovations have been paused and that that the Baku Maintenance Service has started washing off treatments to some building facades.
Ismayilov contends that a larger problem with the COP29 prep-work is that there is no systematic plan to guide government repairs and renovations. He also complained that officials did not give experts, or the general public, an opportunity to offer input.
"If the protection of our city is of concern to these [government] institutions, they should organize a commission that is open to the public, and that commission should be made up of people who love the city and experts, not those who make decisions in their offices," Ismayilov wrote. "Baku's image continues to be lost. Well, at least the President's Administration, which oversees these institutions, should know that what these people are doing is not showing off the country well in front of the guests coming to COP29."
This is not the first controversy connected to methods used to update the city's visual appeal before it hosts a major international event. Before the 2015 European Games, officials authorized work to resurface Soviet-era buildings with polymeric foam, a highly flammable material. A fire at one apartment building later resulted in 15 deaths and dozens more injuries, prompting President Ilham Aliyev to subsequently order the removal of the flammable materials from renovated buildings.
In addition to public grumbling about renovation work, grievances are percolating among some Baku residents over the issue of vanishing green space.
In addition, a protest in Baku marking the first anniversary of the June 2023 violent police crackdown on environmental protesters in the village of Soyudlu, located in the western district of Gadabay, prompted a swift response from security forces. On June 21, police raided the home of labor rights activist Sara Rahimova, accusing her of posting fliers containing the slogans "#JusticeSöyüdlü" and "#FuckCOP29" in public areas in Baku. The Feminist Peace Collective, a South Caucasus-based initiative, issued a statement saying Rahimova's act was designed "to remind the cries of a community oppressed and ravaged by the insidious forces of capitalist extractivism and authoritarian rule."
Official preparations for COP29 also have a political dimension. The country's largely rubber-stamp parliament has appealed to President Aliyev to call snap elections, citing COP29. The election was supposed to be held in the fall. By moving the election forward, it won't conflict with the climate conference. It would be the second snap election this year in Azerbaijan, after Aliyev won 92 percent of the vote in an early presidential vote in February.
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