Ethnic Azerbaijani expert: Economic situation worsens in Tabriz

An ethnic Azerbaijani expert has said that the economic situation worsened in Tabriz city, the most developed city before the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

The remarks came from Mashallah Rezmi, a writer, journalist, and expert on the national movement of South Azerbaijan [northeastern Iran] and co-founder of the “Ərk” human rights organisation, at the "Shout of Lake Orumiyeh" event, APA reports.

He said that before the Islamic revolution, Tabriz ranked fifth in the country. But now Tabriz is the 11th city in the country in economic terms.

"For 100 years, Tabriz has been dropped from first place to 11th. Next to Tabriz, there is a gold mine called Andaryan. It is the largest gold mine in the Middle East. Iran has signed an agreement with Russia to develop this deposit. How much gold is extracted there and where it goes is not reported,” Rezmi said.

“The second deposit is the Sungun copper mine. It is also the second-largest copper mine. The copper mined here is either taken to Kerman or exported to China. Our wealth is being looted and people are not given any information about it,” he said.