The 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13), the UN's largest international platform on urbanism and sustainable development, has begun in Azerbaijan. According to the organizers, more than 40,000 participants from 192 countries have arrived in Baku, including government representatives, mayors, architects, developers, businesspeople, and international experts.
This year's forum's main theme is urban safety and sustainability. Participants are discussing the housing crisis, climate risks, infrastructure development, and the quality of the urban environment. However, the Azerbaijani authorities used the forum not only to discuss urbanism but also to showcase large-scale government projects.
At the opening of the forum, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev devoted a significant portion of his speech to the restoration of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. According to him, power plants, roads, water supply systems, residential buildings, schools, hospitals, as well as three international airports and railway infrastructure, have already been built in the regions.
"As part of the Great Return program, 85,000 people already live and work in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur," Aliyev stated.
At the same time, Azerbaijani authorities regularly present the restoration of Karabakh as the country's largest infrastructure project, while critics point to the high cost of the work, the secrecy of some contracts, and the limited access of independent observers to cost assessments.
The president specifically mentioned the Baku "White City" and "Sea Breeze" projects, presenting them as successful examples of modern urbanization. "White City," built on the site of a former industrial zone, has indeed become one of the capital's largest development projects. At the same time, urbanists and local activists have repeatedly criticized the Baku authorities for infill development, the reduction of public spaces, and the demolition of old neighborhoods during the city's modernization.
Sea Breeze, an elite resort complex on the Caspian coast, has long been a symbol of Azerbaijan's new construction boom, although environmental and urban planning experts periodically raise questions about the impact such projects have on the coastal ecosystem.
The World Urban Forum has been held under the auspices of the UN since 2001 and is considered one of the main international platforms for discussing the future of megacities and sustainable development. For Baku, hosting the forum also became an opportunity to present Azerbaijan as a regional hub for large-scale infrastructure and urban development initiatives.
Critics of the Azerbaijani authorities believe that hosting major international forums in the country is often used as part of an image strategy amid ongoing pressure on the opposition, arrests of journalists and activists, restrictions on freedom of speech, and a persistently high number of political prisoners. According to local human rights activists, there are currently at least 328 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
