On August 28, a 16-story building collapsed in the center of Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. The building was about to be completed, and several families had even moved into apartments on the first and second floors. According to official data, fifteen persons who had been working in the building as laborers died, and three more were wounded. It is still unclear how many additional bodies are trapped under the ruins, but the numbers vary from a few to several dozen. Most of the deceased laborers were from the Archivan village of Astara region near the Iranian border, indicating the level of economic migration within the country.

The collapse of this building came only a few days after another accident, in which a two-story building broke down, killing two and wounding several more in the suburbs of Baku. The first accident did not cause loud alarms, but coupled with the new accident starts, political noise is beginning to rumble.

President Aliyev and other senior leaders of the country immediately visited the scene of the accident. Teams from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other ministries, such as Defense, Internal Affairs and Health also sent troops to help the victims. On the following day, President Aliyev summoned a Cabinet meeting, in which the issue of constructions in Baku was discussed. Later, he issued a decree, creating a state commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov to deal with this accident. At the same time, it was ordered to start checking the quality of construction in the rest of the city as well.

Construction quality problems is indeed being named as the main reason for the collapse of this building. The Mutafakkir company that conducted the construction works has been blamed for using low quality construction materials, violating basic engineering norms, safety standards and ignoring the requests of citizens as well as government officials. Four top managers and owners of the company have been arrested, and criminal charges have been opened against them.

The independent newspaper Zerkalo put forward a hypothesis that the accident took place as a result of terrorism, which was planned by the Russian special services. The authors of the article linked this theory to the eternal fear in Azerbaijani society of a desire by Russian politicians to destabilize the situation in the country, especially ahead of Presidential elections scheduled for fall 2008. The article was immediately ridiculed not only by officials, but also by most of the public. The public view seems to be that the accident happened because of the ignorance of local officials.

The mayor of Baku, Hajibala Abutalibov, has rejected all accusations towards him, saying that the company in question had no license to operate in the country. Most residents and media outlets simply laughed at this statement. Akif Guliyev, a resident in the nearby street, put the matter succinctly: “how is it possible that when someone is building a small kiosk, the mayor’s staff immediately visit the owner and demand documents; and now this 16-story building is under construction, and no one has ever heard of it?”.

In fact, the mayor and other government officials are increasingly blamed by public for the collapse of the building, in fact more than the construction company itself. The construction boom in Baku has taken on an unprecedented, often uncontrolled scale since the early 2000s. Mayor Abutalibov has been issuing permissions for construction left and right, without taking into considerations basic principles of street and community planning, respect for Baku’s general city plan, safety standards and greening areas. The price for land and apartments has increased so much as a result of these construction projects and high demand from construction companies, that it has become one of the most lucrative businesses. High-level government officials are often cited as being linked to these construction works.

The accident also revealed some other social and economic problems, such as the absence of labor agreements between the workers and company owners, lack of safety equipment for workers on the construction site, and a lack of company procedures to pay compensation to the laborers. All of these issues must be regularly monitored and checked by the relevant government agencies, especially Ministry of Social Welfare, Pension Fund, and others.

Ordinary residents have little hope that the situation will improve. Others simply regret that the mayor has been permitted to ruin their city. Construction works are continuing in other parts of the city, and the accident of the last week seems to be forgotten. The era of wild capitalism is trumping the ability of the government to monitor the safety and accuracy of these construction sites.