عاجل
Ahwazna
Advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Taleb Akbar Turkan, in a televised interview with State-run Channel One on Thursday, June 19, urged all the Persian residents (settlers) particularly those investors and holders of capital to purchase the arable farmlands and Palm groves of indigenous Ahwazi Arab people in south of Ahwaz region in predominantly Arab cities of Al-Mohamerah (Khoramshahr), Abadan, Salbukh Island and Ghosbah (Arvand Kanar) along Shatt al-Arab waterway which is entrance to the Arabian Gulf and politically sensitive area in Middle East .
Map of so called “the Arvand Free Trade Zone”, delineated by a dashed blue line. All land within the blue lines is now the property of the Arvand Free Trade Zone, the zone runs along the Shatt Al-Arab waterway Two towns shown in red are Mohammerah (Khoramshahr) and Abadan which encircled by AFZ.
The adviser of Iranian president added that” there are beautiful palm groves and farmlands located in south of the island of Abadan, I suggest to the relevant officials of Arvand Free Zone ((AFZ) to divide these agricultural lands and Palm groves into thousands of small segments Meters and then sell them out to investors and venture capitalists from various cities of Iran. We believe that all Iranians should buy a piece of land or palm grove in Abadan and Al-Mohamerah (Khoramshahr) cities”.
In response to a question asked by the anchor of television program about what the native Arab people of the Ahwaz region would reap from this project as they are losing their lands and would be only guards and workers? “In all cases the native people are just workers and they will work and safeguard the lands but the owners of lands and orchards would only visit there to spend fun times, Taleb Akbar; Turkan answered”.
The Ahwaz human rights organization in a statement condemned what it called “the new scheme to seize the lands of Arab citizens in the areas of Ghosbah (Arvand Kanar), Shatt al-Arab, Abadan and Al-Mohamerah (Khoramshahr) cities and called on the international community to place more pressure on the Iranian authorities to stop this scheme and arbitrary procedures aim at changing the fabric demographic Arab areas in the region of Ahwaz and put an end to the systematic ethnic cleansing , displacement and settlement policies and looting the lands of the Ahwazi Arab people”.
The creation of the military-industrial Arvand Free Zone (AFZ) from 2005 has involved the mass expulsion of Arabs and the destruction of their villages. In all, up to 500,000 Ahwazi Arabs could be displaced by the creation of the 5,000 square km security zone campaign began with the Arab farmers located on Minoo Island, near Abadan. The Policy of ethnic cleansing against the Arab people of Ahwaz has been practiced behind closed doors and through systematic plans, and this new scheme comes as continuation of the plan of displacement revealed during document leaked from the Director of the Office of the President, Mohammad Khatami, known as the “document Abtahi,” which sparked an uprising in April 2005 the largest uprising of the Arab people of Ahwaz in modern history. Land acquisition and ethnic cleansing are intimately bound up with militarization. The need to ensure security and control over the Ahwaz region has led to aggressive forms of Persianization that has entailed the forced migration of ethnic Arabs from the region, the destruction of their homes, confiscation of their land, and the suppression and elimination of all signs of Arab identity.(1)
(1)Source: http://hlrn.org/img/violation/dossier.pdf