After prayer and listening to the news, reading reports, and reviewing today's travel plans, at seven thirty in the morning, we went to the IRGC barracks. In the joint morning ceremony of the armed forces, after observing the roll call, listening to the senior regional commander's report, and the morning ceremony, I gave them an encouraging speech.
After the prayer and listening to the news and reading the reports and studying today's trip programs, at seven-thirty in the morning we went to the IRGC garrison. In the joint morning parade of the armed forces, after seeing the guard of honor, hearing the report of the senior commander of the region, and the morning parade ceremony, I gave them an encouraging speech.
Then we went to the site of the fifty-thousand-seat sports stadium under construction; it is very extensive and covers more than three hundred hectares in the hilly region. After hearing the report of the Director General of Physical Education, I gave a short speech. We named the stadium "Yadegar-e Imam."
We flew toward Mianeh. On the way, we passed beside the peaks of the Sahand mountain range, which is covered with snow. Messrs. the governor and the Minister of Energy gave good explanations about the water situation of the valleys and catchment areas along the route. We landed at the site of the Aidoghmoush Dam, in the southwest of Mianeh. The Director General of Water of the province and the manager of the consulting company gave good explanations about the catchment area and the Qezel Ouzan River, which pours nearly two billion cubic meters of water from the branches of the provinces of Azerbaijan, Zanjan, and Kurdistan into the Caspian Sea. With the sediment it carries from the valuable soils of the lands, it is a complete example of "red gold," the literal meaning of "Qezel Ouzan." The plans are to prevent the dam's problems, to provide drinking water to the city of Mianeh, and to irrigate ten thousand hectares of its lands. With an explosion, the start of the dam's executive work was announced. It is a very suitable place that will cost little. A group of the surrounding villagers had gathered to meet and thank. I gave a short speech for them and for those present regarding the dam project.
From there we went to the site of the irrigation project of the village of Kaloucheh Khalseh, beside the Qezel Ouzan River. The managers of the Ministries of Energy and Agriculture gave explanations. From two rivers, water is pumped for eight hundred hectares of the integrated lands of the village. They use the sprinkler irrigation method. About five hundred million tomans have been spent, one third of which the farmers have paid. It is planned that many projects of this type will be implemented around the river so that the water is wasted less in the river and the people benefit.
We flew to the city of Mianeh. At the helicopter landing site, the people's gathering was astonishing. It was surrounded from all sides and there was no possibility of passing. On the roofs around the place, one of the roofs broke and collapsed, but they were not harmed. We were forced to go to the speech venue by another route, other than the designated route. They had a very good gathering. Mr. Hojjati, the Friday prayer leader, and Mr. Yaqoub Azizzadeh Fahimi, the governor, gave welcome speeches and gave reports. On this trip, contrary to other trips, it was arranged that the representatives would not speak. I too gave a detailed speech about the potentials and development of the city of Mianeh. It is an important old city, but deprived and backward. The disagreement of Mr. Mirsajjad Hojjati, the Friday prayer leader and former representative, with the officials is one of the factors of past underdevelopment.
On the return, we returned along the designated route, and at the site of Zainabiyeh—the school bombed during the war by the Iraqis, which had seventy martyrs—they had made a long scroll decorated with flowers for us to pass through, and we recited a Fatiha, and we also went beside the Martyrs' Garden.
We went to the site of the Azerbaijan Rolling and Steel Factory. After lunch and prayer and rest, the managers gave explanations about the factory; with a capacity of three hundred and fifty thousand tons of wire rod, from 5 millimeters to 16 millimeters, which we currently do not have. One of the important demands of the people is the passage of the transit freeway through Mianeh; currently it is not supposed to go through there.
We flew toward the city of Sarab. The large number of water pools in the hills, created with earthen dams, is noteworthy for watershed management and water use and is among the good current policies. On the way, they gave explanations about the rich perlite and nepheline syenite mines of the region. In Sarab too there was a street welcome, and in the gathering of the people, who are very cheerful, after hearing the report of Mr. Abbas Kamali, the Friday prayer leader, the governor, and their abundant praise, I gave a speech that, as usual, included the brilliant record and potentials of the region and the government's development services and future plans.
We flew to the city of Bostanabad. We landed in the open space of the 96-bed hospital under construction, beside the very magnificent gathering of the people. We visited the hospital with the explanations of Mr. Abbas Akhoundi, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development. In the people's gathering, after hearing the remarks of the governor and Mr. Mohammad Baqer Modarres, the Friday prayer leader, I gave a speech. The feature of Bostanabad County is that 90 percent of the people are in the villages and they have a very good production and economic situation.
We flew to Tabriz and went to the new site of the metalworkers' complex of the city of Tabriz, which has been built with six hundred technical-service units by the metalworkers' cooperative at a cost of six hundred million tomans. It is planned that all of them will be transferred here from the city level; it is a good work. After the report of Mr. Gholamreza Shafei, the Minister of Cooperatives, and the project manager, I gave a short speech. There were many mosquitoes and they were a nuisance.
On the way to the governorate, the huge welcome of the people again caused surprise. In the provincial administrative council, Mr. Ali Abdolalizadeh, the governor, and Engineer Esmail Jabbarzadeh, the head of the province's representatives' assembly, spoke. It was entirely an explanation of the government's development services and praise of the President; contrary to the past, when it was usually the presentation of problems and needs, and this shows the success of the First Plan. I too gave explanations about the general policies and future plans. I slept late. Effat too had gone with the companions to the Marand and Jolfa region.
The sun had risen over the mountain when we flew. After Maghrib we landed at Tabriz University. We immediately entered the gathering of the academics and educators. They had waited for hours. I wanted us to pray first, but due to the delay we gave up. Mr. Mohammad Ali Hosseinpour Fayzi, the president of [Tabriz] University, began his speech. One of the students, in a loud voice, began to recite the call to prayer; presumably as a sign of protest at the non-performance of the prayer on time. The university president replied that because they do not have a suitable place for congregational prayer and the time has also passed, despite the President's wish, it happened this way.
He gave a long and low-content speech. They said he is from the left faction. He praised me and the government's program a lot and said his mother had vowed a three-day fast that I would not be harmed during the trip programs. I gave a detailed speech and provided an analysis of the government's policies and the plan for achieving real independence while preserving the ideals, which was strongly welcomed by those present and they praised it a lot.
Mr. Jahromi, the deputy of Mr. Hashemi [Golpayegani, the Minister of Culture and Higher Education], who had come from Tehran, said that all the country's matters are under the influence of the attraction of the news of this trip to Azerbaijan. We inaugurated the students' dormitory; it is good.
On the way to the governorate, the unplanned welcome of the people was astonishing. At eleven at night, at the governorate, the Quran reciters had been invited to dinner and they also performed a program. I helped them. With extreme fatigue I slept after twelve at night.
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