GRAVES PLANNED TO BE CARRIED AWAY FROM NARIMANOV DISTRICT CEMETERY

Today, Azerbaijan
Jan 16 2007

Regular works on carrying graves away from the cemetery of the
Narimanov district of Azerbaijani capital will start on January 25.

"These works were to be initiated earlier, yet bad weather and ice make
grave digging difficult", director of the cemetery in the Narimanov
district Kamran Mamedov said.

He explained that the transfer of graves to Govsany from the other
part of the cemetery is caused by the plans of the city administration
to lay a new street of Teymur Aliyev on this territory.

The problem of this cemetery went beyond not only Baku, but also
Azerbaijan, as people of different nationalities, whose relatives
reside all over the world, are buried there. Many former Bakuvians,
whose relatives were buried at this cemetery, have settled in
Armenia. Therefore, the so called disrespect to the deceased in Baku
is discussed in the Council of Europe owing to the Foreign Ministry
of Armenia.

It is possible to understand workers, who carry out a heavy work of
digging out tens of corpses a day. If there are no relatives of the
deceased near the grave, the lower-paid salaried workers work without
due respect to the corpses.

But this does not relieve the pain of the relatives. The issue of the
attitude to graves on the Narimanov cemetery was officially raised
by the Coordination Council of Russian-language public organizations
in Azerbaijan, Russian and Ukrainian communities of Azerbaijan and
organization "Commonwealth". Before raising the issue on the European
level, these organizations sent an appeal to President Ilham Aliyev
with a request to carry out this process in conformity with the norms
of religion and morals.

According to Baku reporter Semen Kastrulin, who was directly connected
with the issue, previously the government allocated one free coffin for
each corpse, while now due to the absence of funds of the Executive
powers of the Narimanov district, the ready graves are not purchased
from the producer.

The relatives of the deceased can purchase coffins from the producing
firm at M.Gashgay street, corner of M.Akhundov street.

High quality coffins cost AZN 80 each. Kastryulin states that the
transfer of graves from the second part of the Narimanov district
cemetery started on December 15 of 2007.

K.Mamedov opposed Kastryulin’s words about the lack of funds in the
Administration of the Narimanov district for purchasing coffins. He
said the government undertook all expenses for the transfer of
graves. He also noted that the works are carried with due respect to
the national traditions of a family of the deceased.

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