Azerbaijanis allege widespread fraud and official neglect in regional hubs

Dozens of residents across rural and municipal districts in Azerbaijan have accused local authorities of systemic corruption, alleging land theft, misappropriation of welfare funds, and denied compensation for industrial injuries.

The complaints, spanning several regions including Guba, Absheron, and Shirvan, paint a picture of administrative breakdown and a lack of accountability among local officials and prosecutors.

State bodies in the capital, Baku, have not yet formally responded to the latest round of allegations.

In the northern region of Guba, residents seeking state-sponsored social assistance said they are facing deliberate delays by local administrators trying to extract bribes.

Yasamen Israfilova, a Guba resident, said her application for urgent welfare support had been ignored for months.

"They are stealing from the poor," Ms Israfilova said. "They hold the applications in the system for up to three months. We have learned that they are taking 300 to 400 Azerbaijani manats (£135 to £180) from each family to approve the payments."

She called on central government authorities in Baku to launch an immediate investigation into the regional social welfare office.

Further south, in the Absheron district, an unnamed resident has accused municipal officials of forging his deceased mother's signature to seize and sell a valuable plot of land.

The resident said the land, located in the Saray municipality, was worth more than 100,000 manats (£45,000).

"From the official registry documents, it is clear that a payment was made in my mother's name by an individual named Bayramov SV, a year and a half after her death," the resident said. He alleged that the former head of the local municipality forged the signature and stamped the transfer documents in cooperation with state registry officials.

The complainant further alleged that the Absheron District Prosecutor's Office had repeatedly refused to investigate the matter.

According to the resident, regional appeal courts have three times overturned the prosecutor's decisions to dismiss the case, yet investigators have still failed to submit handwriting samples to forensic experts.

"I believe the prosecutor's office is covering up this case because of high-level corruption," he said.

In the industrial city of Shirvan, a former employee of the state-run Telemexanika factory—which operates under the Ministry of Defence Industry—said he has been denied compensation after losing an eye in a 2017 workplace accident.

The worker, who now wears a prosthetic eye, said factory managers had repeatedly promised him a compensation package by 2024, but have since refused to pay.

He told reporters that after he began publicly complaining, factory officials retaliated by dismissing his sister from her job at the same plant.

"I cannot take money home to my children, whilst the people who pocketed my compensation live in comfort," the worker said. He appealed directly to First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva to intervene.

Meanwhile, in the central city of Mingachevir, local Muslim clerics (mullahs) have accused a municipal representative of illegally occupying their designated rest area at the Ali Cemetery.

The clerics said the official, whom they named as Rafail Allahverdi oglu, had locked them out of the building for nearly two years.

"We are left outside in the rain and the cold," one cleric said in a video address. "They have installed air conditioning and curtains for their own private use inside our room, but they will not even give a cup of water to the religious workers."

The local municipality in Mingachevir has not commented on the status of the building.