Seventy Residents of Qareh Qashlaq Village Arrested; Elderly Men and Women Among the Detainees

The Azerbaijani Political Prisoners Defense Association (ADAP) announced on Thursday, January 21, that the head of the intelligence department of Salmas County has arrested 70 individuals, including elderly men and women, during the crackdown on environmental protests by the residents of Qareh Qashlaq village. Residents of Qareh Qashlaq told ADAP that the head of the intelligence department of Salmas threatened them with sexual violence against the detained women if the environmental protests continued. The Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic has not yet responded to this report. However, in recent years, reports of assault and even sexual abuse in the prisons of the Islamic Republic have been published. The Azerbaijani Political Prisoners Defense Association in Iran has called for the immediate release of those detained during the peaceful environmental protests on Wednesday, January 20, and a comprehensive investigation into the alarming threat of sexual assault by the head of the Salmas intelligence department. In its statement, the association published the names of 8 women and 14 men who were arrested, some of whom are over 70 years old. According to the statement, three of the detained women, whose threat of sexual assault has caused distress among the villagers, are members of the same family. The residents of Qareh Qashlaq, a part of Salmas in West Azerbaijan Province, faced violent attacks from police and security forces following a peaceful gathering on Tuesday, January 19, protesting the environmental pollution caused by the Kaveh Soda Company, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Images shared on social media show police using tear gas and batons to disperse the protesters. According to ADAP, many protesters were injured and sent to the hospital after being detained by government forces. Following this, on the morning of Wednesday, intelligence agents raided the homes in Qareh Qashlaq, resulting in the arrest of 70 individuals, most of whom were villagers. The protests by the residents of Qareh Qashlaq began when Kaveh Soda Company, which has a history of several environmental complaints in various parts of West Azerbaijan Province, initiated plans to establish a 450-hectare sodium carbonate production factory on the village's land. The company intends to drill deep wells in the village, raising concerns among villagers about water shortages in the village and surrounding areas. Previously, Kaveh Soda Company built a similar factory in Maragheh, East Azerbaijan Province, which caused environmental pollution and drew reactions from civil activists and local environmental officials. Nevertheless, according to ILNA news agency, Ibrahim Asgariyan, the CEO of the company, obtained government approval to continue the company's activities during a meeting with Ibrahim Raisi earlier this year. According to the human rights organization's statement, the factory affiliated with the IRGC in Maragheh, which opened in 2004, gradually polluted underground and surface waters within a 150-kilometer radius and caused the death of livestock. The wastewater from this factory has rendered farmland barren for kilometers and contributed to a high incidence of liver and pancreatic cancers in Maragheh. ADAP noted that the discharge of toxic wastewater from this factory into Lake Urmia via the Sofi River has raised concerns among environmental activists. The statement mentions that Kaveh Soda Company is extracting salt crystals from the dried surface of Lake Urmia as a base material for sodium carbonate production, which, according to ADAP, leads to the formation of local salt storm centers in northwest Iran.