Iran as Subaltern Empire: Lake Orumiyeh, Environmental Injustice, and Coloniality in Iranian Azerbaijan

Abstract

AbstractIn recent years, protests have emerged to save Lake Orumiyeh, which has nearly vanished following decades of agricultural development, dam building, and drought. Lake Orumiyeh is located in Iranian Azerbaijan, which sits at the intersection of three former empires: Persian, Ottoman, and Russian. Iranian Azerbaijan is largely comprised of ethno‐linguistic minority communities that are unevenly impacted by environmental hazards stemming from the lake's desiccation, and protests to save the lake are generally characterised as environmental conflict resulting from climate change or as a reflection of ethno‐nationalist tensions in Iran. These readings, however, fail to account for how imperial pasts and colonial presents shape exposure to environmental violence. This article posits that environmental violence functions as a form of coloniality and, using Lake Orumiyeh as an entry point, aims to: (i) examine coloniality in a country that was never formally colonised yet impacted by different formations of empire; (ii) account for subjectivities shaped through non‐Western European forms of imperialism; and (iii) connect racialised difference in Iran to the reproduction of colonial and racial logics vis‐à‐vis European imperialism.