With the passage of ten days, the demonstrations against government’s inattention to the issue of drying-up of Lake Orumieh in northern Iran are changing into a more serious matter. The government’s violent response to the protestors has transformed what is essentially an environmental problem into a political one.
Based on published reports, the protestors in northern Iran have expanded from Orumieh to Tabriz, the capital of Azerbaijan province. Tehran too saw calls to join-in the demonstrations, but the response was not as large as those in Orumieh and Tabriz. Still, it is safe to expect the demonstrations in West and East Azerbaijan provinces to enlarge, producing an expanded police atmosphere in the area.
The large number of arrests and the violent treatment of demonstrators indicate that security sensitivities of the political structures of the Iranian regime now include even environmental and cultural issues. The regime today seems to lack tolerance even for protests over the drying up of a lake that is recognized to be part of the identity of the Azeri (i.e., Turkish speaking people of northern Iran). This is similar to the regime’s intolerance of youth’s playful entertainments with water during the warm days of the summer just a few weeks ago.
The Orumieh Lake issue was born two weeks ago when Majlis deputies carelessly rejected the urgent nature of a bill presented by West Azerbaijan representatives to rescue Lake Orumieh from drying up. Angry over this inattention, the people of the town of Orumieh held a peaceful and non-political rally. But Tehran responded rapidly and with full force, turning the event into a political-security issue.
Lake Orumieh is Iran’s largest domestic lake and a critical source of water in the country. It is the most saline lake in the world, after the Red Sea and consequently plays a larger role in the eco system that crosses Iran’s borders and includes those of Turkey and Iraq. It is therefore considered to be not just part of Iran’s national heritage but also that of the world’s.
The drying-up of the lake began a few years ago and today some 53 percent of its water is dried up. Professionals, experts and environmentalists have been warning about the dangerous consequences of this trend since the beginning of Ahmadinejad’s second presidential term in 2009 but their calls have been falling on deaf ears.
According to these experts, if the lake dries up, the salt storms emanating from it would kill large parts of Azerbaijan, Ardebil, Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces, and turn millions of people would into refugees. Gardens, fields and parks would dry up, inflicting damages worth millions of Dollars to the economy of Iran, enlarging the current unemployment force. In addition, this would impact the demographics of the north-western sector of the country.
In 2006-2007, responsible professionals presented an eco and environmental plan to prevent the drying up of the lake to Ahmadinejad. Nothing came out of it as it led to no action. This and Majlis’ latest rejection of the urgency of the issue brought about the angry response of the residents of Orumieh.
The reasons for the drying-up of the lake have two sources: human and natural. Even though experts do not agree on the exact proportion between these two factors as the causes of the problem, it is generally believed that dam-building, digging of deep wells, road construction and over-use of water for agricultural purposes constitute about 30 percent while the remaining 70 percent is believed to come from evaporation and draught.
The government asserts that it has allocated billions of Toman (which is exchanged at the rate of about a 1,000 Toman for a single a US Dollar) on projects to save the lake from drying up. Irrespective of the meagerness of this amount, it seems that this budget has till now not be allocated to the appropriate agencies that are responsible and authorized to deal with the issue.
Under these circumstances, it is only natural for the people of Orumieh and others to be concerned, to take action and to warn authorities of the issue. This concern and natural response is a social asset which can in fact be utilized to mobilize public opinion to help address the issue. But instead of utilizing this potential and respecting public concerns, authorities unfortunately resorted to violence and the police.
Lake Orumieh is more than just a pond for the residents of northern Iran. It is part of their identity and history with recorded evidence building and indicating its sanctity.
Understanding the social foundations of protests helps us see the roots of public sensitivities. For years now there has been a rift between authorities and Azeri identity activists. A large number of Iranian Azeris believe that their identity is being disregarded and that justice is not passed on to them. This is a reality among a significant part of the country’s Turkish speaking minority. It is in this context that any protest in the region initially takes an identity and ethnic color, but subsequently turns political. Still, the transformation of the concern into a political issue is attributed to the government’s violent and oppressive response to an environmental issue. Only after the government’s crackdown did those Turks who pursue sub-national identity concerns jumped in and attempted to politicize the issue, thus promoting their own agenda.
The regime’s violent and merciless response also brings forth the human rights aspect of the episode. According to some observers, the armed forces, police and plain-clothes agents used plastic bullets, beatings, and tear gas to disperse the protesting crowds. According to the Association for the Defense of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan, three people died as a result of this violence and many were injured and hospitalized in medical centers. Varying reports emerged on the number of arrests, ranging from tens of people to hundreds. Some people spoke of serious physical violence inflicted on the detainees. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the military arm of the Islamic revolution, has taken up the task of extinguishing the protests in Azerbaijan over the issue. If the death of the three reported individuals is confirmed, then the human right violation scope will be wide. From a human rights perspective, these atrocities must be condemned and efforts must be made to immediately stop the government violence against protestors.
At the same time, there is another dimension to this issue. Lake Orumieh protests also reignite the flames of ethnic vs. central government forces. If those in the center (i.e., Tehran) do not pay sufficient and proper attention to the issue, then the separatist trends will pick up more ears.
Responses to Lake Orumieh protests are foremost a human rights duty, i.e., an effort to prevent human rights violations and atrocities, and then civil in nature to prevent an environmental disaster. The event also carries a national weight because the lake is a valuable national asset. Iran’s national interest requires that all efforts be made to prevent the drying-up of the pond.
At the same time, this incident provides an opportunity for cooperation between the Persians in the center and Iranian Turkish speaking people of the north. Tehran can display its sensitivities to the legitimate concerns of the Azeri nationalists. It can and should show that Iran is for all of its sub-ethnic groups: the Turks, Persians, Arabs, Lors, Baluchis, Turkmen, etc.
The key for success for the Lake Orumieh protests is to focus on the environmental and national aspects of the issue and refrain from turning this into an ethnic or political issue.
