Fatima-Zahra Mosque (Yeni Guneshli)

Fotimayi-Zahra Mosque (Azerbaijani: Fatimeyi-Zəhra məscidi) — a mosque located in the Yangi Gunashli residential area of the Garachuxur settlement in Surakhani district of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

About the mosque

By order No. 1179 dated August 21, 1996 of the Executive Power of Baku city, 1.3 hectares of land were allocated to the religious community of the “Fotimayi-Zahra” mosque in the Yangi Gunashli settlement of Baku city, and permission was granted to construct a mosque‑madrasah complex.

Since the mosque was to be put into permanent use, the area was fenced off and the construction of the mosque began. The construction of the mosque started in the late 1990s.

Later, permission to complete the mosque was not granted. By order of Baku mayor Hojibala Abutalibov on October 31, 2002, the previous order No. 1179 of August 21, 1996 was found to have lost its force.

Subsequently, the Executive Power of Surakhani district, considering the mosque illegal, filed a lawsuit against the mosque, requesting the court to return the land and demolish the mosque.

The religious community demanded the cancellation of the Baku city Executive Power leader’s order of October 31, 2002 and the cessation of illegal actions, and filed a counter‑claim.

At that time, the rights of the believers were defended by lawyer Aslan Ismayılov. Despite strong public opposition, the district executive of Baku, the local economic court No. 2 of Baku, the Baku Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court decided to reclaim the land and demolish the mosque.

Although in 2009 the court issued a decision to demolish the mosque as an illegal construction, in 2010 President Ilham Aliyev annulled the demolition decision and transferred the mosque to the Caucasus Muslims Office.

The Supreme Court Plenum's decisions were annulled, the Baku appellate court, with its decision of December 29, 2010, annulled the Baku city executive authority's order No. 613 dated October 31, 2002, the claim of the Surakhani district executive authority was not satisfied, and the 1.3 hectare land area located in the central block of the Yangi Gunashli settlement of Surakhani and the mosque complex built there were transferred to the balance of the Caucasus Muslims Office.

The decision came into force, but the mosque is in a completely unfit condition. Nevertheless, the mosque continues its activity and people come here for worship.

Information about the destruction of the Fatimayi-Zahra mosque in February 2017 spread in some mass media and social networks. Aliheydar Zulfugarov, head of the Department for Working with Religious Organizations of the State Committee for Working with Religious Organizations with Azerbaijan religious organizations, clarified the information about the mosque, stating that the mosque was to be handed over to the Caucasus Muslims Office by the local municipality.