Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Temkin Jafarov - Trend:
The current situation shows that the language of Azerbaijanis living in Iran is on the brink of extinction, as is the Lake Urmia, Iranian East Azerbaijan Province's Governor, Easmaeil Jabbarzadeh said, according to the ISNA news agency.
Jabbarzadeh made the remarks at a meeting with the head of Iran's Environment Protection Organization, Masoumeh Ebtekar, according to the report.
He said Azerbaijani is a language possessing unique characteristics and this language needs much attention.
"The government officials are trying to achieve the establishment of an Azerbaijani language academy in the province. We ask the government to gladden Azerbaijanis' hearts by accelerating the works on opening of this academy," Jabbarzadeh added.
It should be noted that before the presidential election in Iran last year, the country's current President Hassan Rouhani said addressing Tabriz city's residents that all peoples in Iran should have equal rights.
"Iranian nation is a single nation, and those who discriminate between Kurds, Turks, Lurs, Balochis, Turkmens, Arabs and Persians, are not Iranians," the president said.
Rouhani also promised that an Azerbaijani language and literature academy will be established.
A campaign for collection of signatures was also carried out for creation of this academy.
Jabbarzadeh also noted that the deplorable state of the Lake Urmia is one of the significant ecological problems in the East Azerbaijan Province.
He stressed that the lake's shallowing is due to various reasons, but the lack of appropriate management is the main reason.
There should be 32 billion cubic metres of water in the Lake Urmia, but its water has decreased by half.
In September, 2011 the Iranian government allocated a total of $900 million to prevent shallowing of the lake.
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also provided $135 million in order to assist Iran in settling the ecological problems, especially those related to the Lake Urmia.
Translated by E.A.