Asia

Home page

Asia

Police interferes to mass rallies held by Azerbaijanis in Iran, many wounded and arrested

04 September 2011 11:07 (UTC +04:00)

APA reports that the slogans such as â€œAzerbaijan is my soul, Urmia lake is my blood!â€, â€œUrmia lake is near end, the government issues decree for its deathâ€, â€œUrmia lake calls out: I have no waterâ€ were sounded in the rallies.
More than 10 thousand our compatriots participated in the demonstration held en route Tabrizâ€™s Bazar square, between the cityâ€™s executive powerâ€™s building and Rastakucha, Amin street, â€œKonkabashiâ€ abd Baghgabagi.
The police interfered to the rally and detained the women and children who participated in the rallies. According to some reports, one22-years old demonstrator was killed during the policeâ€™s interference.

The rallies were also held in Urmiaâ€™s Imam, â€œAtaiâ€, Besat, South Khayyam, Kashani graveyards, â€œVilayati-fagihâ€ and â€œLibertyâ€ squares. The local population also protested the governmentâ€™s indifferent attitude t the drying up of the Urmia lake in Sarab, Ahar, and Meshkinshahr cities. Though our compatriots in Tehran assembled in â€œImam Huseynâ€ and â€œLibertyâ€ squares in order to support these protests, the force with the interference of police and armed forces was used against the participants. The police got the squares under control and used tear gas in order to disperse the participants and fired at the peaceful demonstrators.

It was impossible to determine the number of wounded and arrested.
The rally participants demand to stop the purposive drying up of Urmia lake, to take necessary measures for prevention of the lakeâ€™s drying up, the apologize of the government, parliamentâ€™s chairman and some MPs for their insult aimed at Azerbaijani people.

The dismissal of Western Azerbaijan provinceâ€™s governor general and his bringing to responsibility, the punishment of police officers who attacked the protestors, the liberation of arrested, the stop of insult of Azerbaijani people in the governmentâ€™s media and the compensation to the personal household of the local population are among the demands.
The South Azerbaijan Turks also hold rally outside Tehranâ€™s embassy in Ankara protesting the drying up of Urmia lake. Such rally will be held also in Swedenâ€™s Gothenburg city on September 4.