Internet Access Helps Rural Azerbaijanis Connect with Legal Resources

When Eyvaz Osmanov, a resident of the northern Azerbaijani town of Guba, needed a new electricity meter, he first went to the local IREX f.y.i. Center. With the help of the Center’s staff he researched the installation process. Osmanov learned that according to legislation adopted by the Azerbaijani parliament in August 2009, the electricity company was responsible for the cost of installing the new meter. When the electricity company’s engineers came to install the meter, however, they asked Osmanov to pay for it. Frustrated, Osmanov turned to local authorities.

“My complaint to the head of the electricity distribution network for the Guba region did not produce any results,” he said.

After local authorities stonewalled his appeal, Osmanov turned to the IREX f.y.i. Center once again to send a complaint directly to the President of Azerbaijan. Using the Presidential Administration’s website, Osmanov wrote a letter to the President explaining his situation.

“A few days after, the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan sent a request to the Executive Power of the Guba region demanding they investigate the issue and I received a reply from the Presidential Administration saying that my complaint was under investigation,” Osmanov said. In just weeks, Osmanov’s new meter was installed free of charge and he received a personal apology from the electric company’s district manager.

Osmanov’s experience is not uncommon in Azerbaijan. Local authorities often inconsistently interpret laws and regulations and in some cases ignore them completely. Ramin Mahmudov, the administrator of the IREX f.y.i. Center in Guba, said that the positive resolution of Osmanov’s case is similar to stories of other Center users. Several others have successfully appealed to the Presidential Administration using the free Internet and legal resources provided by the Center, he said.

For example, Fakhri Ramazanov, a disabled war veteran sent an appeal for subsidized housing through the Presidential Administration’s website. The Presidential Administration replied, asking Ramazanov to provide additional documents to support his request. “Ramazanov conducted all the correspondence through the IREX f.y.i. Center and currently the local authorities in Guba are working to solve his issue,” Mahmudov said.

IREX’s 11 regional f.y.i. Centers are part of the Azerbaijan New Media Project (ANMP), empowers local residents by giving them free access to legal information and the ability to appeal directly to authorities in Baku when local officials refuse to enforce the law.

ANMP is funded by USAID and implemented by IREX in partnership with Transitions Online, the Kiwanja Foundation, and Save the Children, in addition to several Azerbaijani organizations.