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Iranian Azerbaijanis address the President of Azerbaijan

15 November 2011 10:08 (UTC +04:00)

According to APA, they drew attention to the political, economic and social state of the Azerbaijani Turks in Iran, ethnic discrimination they face there, as well as drying up of the Urmia Lake in Southern Azerbaijan: â€œAs You know, tens of millions of Southern Azerbaijani Turks living in Iran suffer from the cultural and economic problems and discrimination. In recent years, the Southern Azerbaijan has faced such serious problem that was turned into the life and death struggle for our people. This problem is related to Urmia Lake, which is called as the â€œAzerbaijani Brideâ€ for its beauties of nature. The lake has been threatened by drying up in the past few years. Being the worldâ€™s second largest salt lake at one time, Urmia lost 60% of its waters and is rapidly drying up. It threatens to create a large salt heath in the center of the Southern Azerbaijanâ€.

A heath containing billion tons of salt will cause catastrophic environmental problem for the region. â€œMost of our people will be forced to move to the central and southern part of Iran. It will devastate our homeland and displace our people. Iranian government claims that this problem has natural causes, but the experts think that it was caused by artificial problems rather than natural. The government has not taken any measure for the prevention of this problem so far, which strengthens the above-mentioned versionâ€.

The Southern Azerbaijani Turks asked the Azerbaijani authorities to help them to solve this problem: â€œWe, a group of Southern Azerbaijani Turks, ask You, as the representative of Azerbaijani nation in the world, not to remain inattentive to the fate of your compatriots and not to refuse to give humanist and civil support. Your role in informing the world community about the problem of Urmia Lake will be important and decisive and will give a great support to Your sisters and brothers in Southâ€.