İran’s Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal has put 22 South Azerbaijani environmental activists on trial . The joint  arraignment of the accuseds was held at the city of Urmiya, South Azerbaijan  on 16 December 2014.

The 22 environmental activist  arrested during a peaceful protest to save Lake Urmiya on 10 July 2014 were indicted by the Revolutionary Court of charges such as  “Conspiracy against Islamic Revolution”, “Formation of a clandestine “Pan Turkist” group” and “Propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

The arraigned activists are identified as follows:
Yasir Akbari, Nima Hasani, Mahammad Mahammadi, Ata Karimi, Milad Mukhtari, Ruhullah Mazahiripur, Amir İbrahimli, Yasin Hajizada, Ehsan Badirmilan, Mustafa Hashimi, Mahammad İmamalipur, Süheyl Dairi, Rza Shahnazi Guljavan, Yunus Arshad, Ali Halavatnigar, Homayun Rahimi, Amin KHudaparast, Salar KHalilpur, Rza Heydari, Rza Chakmak va Ramin Khalili.
Some of the accuseds namely, Amin Khudaparast, Riza Chakmək, Yasin Hajizada and Ali Halavatnigarın are under 18 years of age; however, they are being tried as adults.

Lake Urmiya 2 daceades ago  and now

The activists entered a not guilty plea and reiterated that they were merely attempting to draw attention to the cause of Urmiya Lake which is on the verge of extinction due to suspicious nuclear activities of the Iranian regime in the region.

Many  Azerbaijanis also believe that the lake is being deliberately emaciated to force a mass migration of the Turks from their homelands.
Aridity of the Lake Urmiya has resulted in salt storms devastating life in the immediate surroundings.

According to the United Nations’ resident representative in Tehran, the environmental calamity has already forced a detrimental evacuation of 600,000 people from the adjacent towns and cities and is threatening many more.