‘A collection of treaties, engagements and sanads relating to India and neighbouring countries’ [‎16] (33/578)

16
PERSIA.
In 1878 Persia and Turkey settled a special tobacco tariff * renewable
every ten years: and signed an agreement t respecting sanitary regula
tions to be observed by Persian pilgrims.
In 1877 the continued advance of the Russian troops on the east coast
of the Caspian Sea caused the Turkmans of Merv and Akhal to consider
whether it would be for their advantage that the nominal sovereignty,
which Persia had claimed over them for many years, should become more
definite, or whether it would be more prudent to declare allegiance to
Russia. In 1878 some Chiefs of the Tekke Turkmans of Merv visited
Tehran and made an agreement with the Shah, by w r hich they promised
allegiance to Persia; but the agreement was set aside on their return
to Merv. In the same year the Russians advanced on the Akhal territory
formerly claimed by Persia, and continued their advance in the following-
year. In 1880 the Tekke Turkmans of Merv again sent a deputation
to Tehran; but this led to no result, as one of the conditions of their
admitting allegiance to Persia was that the fertile lands of Sarakhs
should be assigned to them if they eventually decided to abandon Merv.
In the meanwhile the Turkmans of the Akhal district had gained tem
porary successes against the Russians; but in 1881 General Skobeleff took
Geok lapih and occupied the Persian Ataks of Daraghaz and Kalat-i-
Nadiri. This led to the signing of the Akhal-Khorasan boundary
convention^ by which the Russo-Persian frontier from the Caspian Sea
to Baba Durmaz was defined, although the actual demarcation by the
Russian and Persian commissioners was not completed till 1885. By
the Convention of 1881 the agreement entered into in 1869, by which the
river Atrak -was to form the boundary between the two countries, was
cancelled.
In 1880 a protocol was signed between Great Britain and Russia
regarding the territory of Kotaur, in accordance with the 60th article
of the Treaty of Berlin, by which the lands in dispute were declared to
belong to Persia and were therefore evacuated by the Turkish troops.
In the same year a Kurdish tribe, under a certain Shaikh Obaidulla,
made an incursion over the Turko-Persian frontier and ravaged certain
eisian \illages. In 1881-82, on the Persian Government making urgent
representations to the Porte, measures were taken to prevent the recur
rence of these inroads, and the Shaikh was captured and banished to
Medina.
In 1882 a second slave-trade Convention (No. XIX) was signed
between Great Britain and Persia, abrogating the Convention of 1851,
giving British cruisers the right to search Persian vessels, and making
* Appendix No. XVII.
t Appendix No. XVIII.
7 Appendix No. XIX.