Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – October 1, 1997

At sunrise, we went to the [Mehrabad] airport and flew to Urmia. Mohsen [Hashmi], [Ataullah] Mohajerani, [Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance], [Rasul] Zargar, [Deputy Minister of Energy], Tabatabai and [Mustafa] Hashemi Taba, [Head of Physical Education Organization], were with him. After being welcomed by the officials at the Urmia airport, we went to the new mosque. For the prayer meeting, hundreds of people from all over the country came. The meeting became official immediately. Qur'an and Khair Moghaddam Mr. [Gholamreza] Hosni, Friday imam and with the direction of Mr. [Syed Ahmed] Zerhani, [Ministry of Education] and the message of leadership, I gave a speech about the human need for God and the innate nature of worship and the best form of worship is prayer.

Then we went to Shahrchai dam in the northwest of Urmia. Mr. Zargar and the engineers explained and we visited two dug tunnels. They are busy lining the tunnels. I picked up two years ago; It has a capacity of more than 200 million cubic meters of water for drinking and agriculture.

From there, we went to the shore of Lake Urmia in the port administration, which is considered as a place to stay. After half an hour of rest and prayer and then having lunch, I read a little; A part of the meeting minutes of the Security Council during Shah's time in October 1357, who were worried about the development of demonstrations and struggles that spread to educational centers.

From there, we went to Hasanlu Dam - near Naqdeh. It is an interesting dam, similar to the semi-Zabul well; This dam, in addition to another dam called Shaherchai, irrigates about 50 thousand hectares. The drainage channel that has been passed from the lagoon to Lake Urmia has caused it to dry up

Wetland and the acquisition of hectares of agricultural land. The [Environmental Protection Agency] disagreed. Mr. Zargar and the engineers explained. Two years ago, I knocked it down. is a contractor of the army.

We went to Shahid Kalantari road inside Rezaiye Lake [= Urmia]. To build the bridge in the middle of the road, they received a loan. Mr. Mohammad Hashim explained. We returned to the residence. I read Maghrib and Isha prayers and got the news.

We went to visit the artemia fish harvesting workshop from Urmia lake near the residence. They explained. They have taken the technology from Belgium. We observed from catch to packaging. It is an expensive product that is abundant in Lake Urmia. They said, it has about 400 thousand tons of biomass [= adults] and thousands of tons of cysts [= Artemia eggs]. The [Environmental Protection Organization] has not yet issued a permit, but they harvest about 30 tons annually. Artemia is a feed for shrimp, salmon and sturgeon, and America is the largest exporter of it.

On the routes, people welcomed us warmly and we had interesting events; For example, a person on the side of the road stopped the car with his children. I thought that he was desperate and had a necessary job. We stopped, but it turned out that her child insisted on kissing me. Or the herdsmen would sacrifice their animals on the side of the road.