Media: Azerbaijani population of Iran concerned about negligent attitude of authorities towards Lake Urmia

Over the past two decades, Lake Urmia, in northwestern Iran, has shrunk by nearly 95 percent, Report informs referring to Newsweek.

“If the lake were to dry up, some four million residents from the West and East Azerbaijan provinces would have to be evacuated, with vicious salt storms making their land uninhabitable.

They're not going quietly. In the past week, Azerbaijani protesters have taken to the streets throughout the region. A week ago, demonstrators gathered at the provincial office of Iran's Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization in Tabriz chanting, "Lake Urmia is thirsty!"

While Lake Urmia desiccates, the government has spared no efforts in supplying water to Persian regions in need. This has not escaped the attention of the protestors. Two weeks ago, Azerbaijani activists in the Caspian city of Ardabil handed out leaflets attacking the regime for pumping water from the Caspian Sea to the farmers in the Semnan province, who belong to Iran's dominant Persian population and have long mismanaged and wasted water,” reads the article.

The regime may be deliberately neglecting the lake to extract lithium from its dried up bottom in the future, the Voice of America reported last year. Tehran has denied these allegations. Some, like the activist Telegram channel Guney AZfront, paint a darker picture: the regime wants to see the region broken up to destroy any potential for future Azerbaijani secession.

“Rather than taking concrete steps to preserve the Azerbaijanis' salt-water lifeline, the government has blamed the desiccation on an Israeli plot and villainized the protesters. Last week, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman accused protesters of using the lake's desiccation as a political weapon. Earlier this month, security forces detained prominent environmental activists like Said Minayi and Fatima Dadashzade. They also arrested a store owner for wearing a shirt with the shape of Lake Urmia.

Arrests and threats are unlikely to soften the Azerbaijanis' resolve. Despite decades of repression, Azerbaijanis continue to take to the streets to demand a solution. For Azerbaijanis, the drying of Lake Urmia as an existential problem. They can survive discrimination, but not life without water,” reads the article.