Talk:Lake Urmia

message: This line is not correct: "Along with lake Van and lake Sevan, it was one of the three great lakes of the Armenian Kingdom, referred to as the seas of Armenia". Firstly, because it is imprecise and gives a wrong impression that the Lake was fully within Armenia, as opposed to bordering its north-western shore. Secondly, because it gives a link to Armenian kingdom, where it positions itself as some unitary "kingdom" for centuries ("was an independent[citation needed] kingdom from (approximately 355 years) 190 BC to AD 165[citation needed], and a client state of the Roman Empire from 165 to 428.") The reality is that Armenia, under the Persian king Tigranes the Great, had Urmia and other Atropatenian lands for only about 20 years during its first and only independent existence from 95 BC to 66 BC. Before that, and after that, lake Urmia was firmly part of various empires that existed on the territory of Iran -- whether Achameneid and Sassanid Persian Empires, or the Parthian Empire, or the Medes/Media. Thus, the wording used by POV pushers is incorrect and will have to be changed. 
Also, the Redgrave book, however unscholarly and pro-Armenian, contains the following quotes as well: "From their base south of Lake Urmia (now in Iran), the Scyths troubled Urartu as well as her rival Assyria. Azerbaijan is an arrow pointed at Armenia's..." (p. 10)
"More ancient still than these sites is that of Hasanlu, to the south of Lake Urmia. Here there was a settlement as early as the sixth millennium BC. Hasanlu was a major metal-working centre and prosperous in the very late second millennium. In the late ninth century BC it was part of the newly formed kingdom of Mana, which both Assyria and Urartu were to try to control, for strategic, commercial and economic reasons." (p. 29)
"But the Scyths attacked Urartu as well as Assyria from their base in Mana and the Zagros mountains to the south of Lake Urmia." (p. 32)
This is why I've previously inserted the following line, which for some unexplained reason was removed by POV pushers: "In ancient times, Lake Urmiya was part of the Manna state, later Urartu, Medes (Media) and Atropatena." Anyways, this line is going to be added back. --AdilBaguirov 20:41, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not to me. It's all rabid anti-Armenian propaganda.-- Ευπάτωρ Talk!! 22:38, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Armenian POV 

message: Babakexorramdin, there is no need to mass remove (vandalize) Latin script titles for Azerbaijan. As you have already been explained at Talk:Tabriz, the International Standards Organization recognizes the language with Latin script. Please, provide basis, with references, for using Arabic script only. Thanks. Atabek (talk) 23:24, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  I have answered you before.You see I have  nothing against you. I usually agree with you when you say interesting things. --Babakexorramdin (talk) 10:45, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Script

message: On 20 January 2011 Xashaiar removed the paragraph:
:Today, the majority of the people who live around the lake speak Azeri (a Turkic language) as their first language and Persian (Iran's official language) for use in commerce and government. The word "urum" has a turkic grammatical structure and means grape in several different Oghuz Turkic dialects including Azeri spoken in Urumia. The Ancient name used by Turkic tribes for Urumia was Urumlu (land of grapes), which would explain the large amount of fabulous grapes grown in the region for thousands of years. The modern Azeri word for grape is Uzum.
claiming that it was original research and contained false information.  It seems that the first sentence is true based upon pre-1950 descriptions of the area, but I don't live there. I haven't looked at dictionaries about the "grape" meaning of urum. Does anyone have good citations to reliable sources for this? --Bejnar (talk) 00:02, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Name origin

message: Needs some information about approximate altitude.  Is this a high-altitude lake ? Eregli bob (talk) 13:51, 23 April 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Lake Urmia (, Daryāche-ye Orūmiye Azerbaijani: Urmu gölü, ﺍﻭﺭﻣﻮ ﮔﺆﻟﻮ, Kurdish Wermy, , Kaputan ts'ov, ancient name: Lake Matiene) 
However, the guideline at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)#Separate section usage states Alternatively, if there are more than two alternative names, these names can be moved to and explained in a "Names" or "Etymology" section; it is recommended that this be done if there are at least three alternate names, or there is something notable about the names themselves.  As there was a considerable list of names, the lead was shorted and the alternate names placed in the "Names and etymologies" subsection.  The guideline goes on to say: Once such a section or paragraph is created, the alternative English or foreign names should not be moved back to the first line.  As the local official name is not different from its anglicization, it was not included in the lead.  --Bejnar (talk) 20:45, 17 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  altitude 

message: This edit removed content because:
# Sources are not reliable, most of them are various activist websites, YouTube and Facebook.
# They use irredentist terms like "South Azerbaijan", used only by pan-Turkic activists from Republic of Azerbaijan.
# They use conspiracy theories about Iranian government wanting to "depopulate region" because it's inhabited by Iranian Azeris.
Regarding the last one, there are two important points here: first, Iranian Azeris are well integrated in society and there are no any kind of ethnic frictions with others because Iran is a multi-ethnic society. There are dozens of high-ranking Iranian Azeri politicians (proportionally even more then Persians), including head of state Ali Khamenei. Second point: Iran and whole region was infected by serious of droughts in past few years (building of dams also contributed to losing water), so not only Urmia was affected but also Parishan Lake, Zayandeh-Rud and many other (in central Iran, Fars/Persia region). Maybe government plans to depopulate inner Persia also? Laughable. Beside lacking reliable sources, claims make no logical sense. --MehrdadFR (talk) 01:45, 12 November 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi Mehrdad. I'm not claiming the existing text is perfect, but it could easily be changed to report on activists' claims (rather than to advocate their cause) and balance these claims with alternative, sourced viewpoints. Both the your line and the Azeri-nationalist line are POV if not presented as reported opinions. Deleting large chunks of sourced text is disruptive editing, and I think you know that. Using comment tags to hide the text does not make that acceptable. You say the "sources are not reliable, most of them are various activist websites". I see the NYT, SF Chronicle, Guardian, Hürriyet Daily News, Today's Zaman, and the BBC among these. I'm restoring the existing content because it's less POV than your deletions. You're welcome to edit what's there to make it accurately reflect the reliable sources, and to add alternative views supported by reliable sources. Rupert Clayton (talk) 04:52, 12 November 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pan-Turkic activist junk 

message: The following statement: "in the last five hundred years the area around Lake Urmia has been home to Azeris, Iranians, Kurds, Assyrians, and Armenians" makes a false distinction between Iranians, Azeris, and Kurds - whilst the latter two are part of the Iranian peoples. For example, Iranian Azerbaijanis and Kurds are descendants of Medes and Parthians. The languages spoken are all part of the Iranian languages. Iranian (Iranic) peoples include Azeris and Kurds. The distinction made is not an accurate description. 
I recommend the following alternation: 
"In the last five hundred years the area around Lake Urmia has been home to Iranians, Assyrians, and Armenians". 
Note that the substance of the statement is not impacted. Merely the words: Azeris and Kurds are merged with Iranians - as they should have been. NuturalObserver (talk) 13:25, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  History - minor inaccuracy  

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that :File:Urmia lake drought.webm will be appearing as picture of the day on September 20, 2017. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2017-09-20. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 01:52, 5 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:File:Urmia lake drought.webm]] to appear as POTD soon 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The says that this was the largest saltwater lake in the world once, but this makes little sense because the Aral Sea was significantly larger at the time, just to give an example. The Caspian Sea also has salt water, although the salt concentration is lower. Is there a specific definition in use by this article?
:Update: Looks like it was a recent addition, I restored the test to the previous form. —Ynhockey (Talk) 12:58, 3 July 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Largest saltwater lake? 

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thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion