Lake Urmia protests

Culture of origin: Azerbaijani · Historical

Holiday sources: Azerbaijani

Lake Urmia, Iran's largest lake and the world's third-largest saltwater lake, has been drying; activists blame the dams that divert its water and construction projects around it, while the authorities long blamed global warming. On 17 August 2011 parliament rejected an emergency bill to raise its level with water from the Aras River. Demonstrations began on 27 August in Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil and other cities and resumed on 3 September. In Urmia anti-riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and beat protesters with batons; in Tabriz security forces attacked them with electric batons and tear gas. Human Rights Watch reported several hundred arrests from late August, about 300 of them in Urmia on 27 August; a group of Azerbaijani political prisoners said security forces killed a handful of protesters with live ammunition, which Human Rights Watch could not confirm.