CEMETERIES SHOULD MEET NATIONAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES AND MODERN REQUIREMENTS
Intensive development and modernization of Baku city infrastructure have caused a number of problems. Among them, the overfilling of existing cemeteries, designing cemeteries in accordance with contemporary requirements, their electronic registration and some others are of particular importance.
Taking into account the necessity to improve the situation in this area and bring new cemeteries under construction to compliance with national-aesthetic requirements of the Azerbaijani people, the Baku Mayor Office has set up a special commission.
The Commission chaired by Baku city Mayor Hajibala Abutalybov includes the capital’s some district governors, heads of design organizations, leaders of ethnic and religious minorities of Azerbaijan, leaderships of the National Academy of Sciences and Caucasus Muslims Board.
According to the information AZERTAC received from the Baku Mayor Office, the Commission had gathered to discuss issues related to equal distribution of lands at the cemeteries under construction, erection of identical tombstones instead of pompous monuments, establishment of appropriate institutions, including the creation of an electronic database of those buried at each cemetery, and so on.
The Commission members have decided that the Baku Mayor Office in collaboration with other appropriate structures would ensure building three new cemeteries near the capital city. They also spoke of reconstruction and conservation of old cemeteries in Baku noting the importance of their fencing in and equipping.
Construction of new roads as part of the city’s infrastructure modernization process necessitated the moving of the Bibieybat cemetery in Sabail district and the cemetery located in Narimanov district to other area.
Transfer of the Bibieybat cemetery is about to complete, while that of the graves from the cemetery in Narimanov district to the Hovsany cemetery with an area of 40 hectares is going on as scheduled.
The construction documents phase of the project on mounting the monument to the warriors died in Baku military hospitals during the WWII at this cemetery. The monument is planned to be unveiled on May 9, 2008.
The Commission members also discussed the practice of transfer of cemeteries taken place in Azerbaijan in 19th and 20th centuries. Attending the meeting representatives of religious bodies stated that transfer of graves does not contradict to religion. They underlined, however, that true information about the work had not been timely presented to the public.
The Commission’s decision was to publish the information about the transfer of graves from the cemetery in Narimanov district on the website of the Baku Mayor’s Office (www.bakucity.az), and to use the secretariat’s telephone number 492-84-50 as a hotline.
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