'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎569] (636/714)

THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES
5(i9
Commission, to wliich were attached British and Russian repre
sentatives, and which met at Erzerum in 1843, in order to discuss
and settle the frontier question. The English Commissioners were
Sir F. Williams (of Kars), Major Farrant, and a relative of my
own _Mr. Robert Curzon, author of ' Monasteries of the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. ,'
and afterwards Lord Zouche. As a consequence of their delibera
tions and surveys, the treaty of Erzerum was signed in June 1847.
Soon after, in 1849, the Commissioners reassembled at Baghdad in
order to commence the actual delimitation. In the course of their
labours, the Turks anticipated any future decision by wrongfully
seizing the fort of Kotur, from which they expelled the Persian
garrison, and where they built barracks and remained in spite of
frequent protests for over thirty years. 1 Meanwhile, the Com
missioners continued their survey from Mohammerah on the Shat-
el-Arab to Mount Ararat, a distance of 700 miles, until the
Crimean war broke out, when their labours were of course sus
pended. As a result of their examination, a map was drawn up,
and presented in 1865, which did not however attempt to demar
cate a boundary, but indicated a border-strip from twenty to forty
miles in width, somewhere inside which the frontier line was under
stood to lie, the two governments being left to settle the question
by agreement or force as they pleased. This somewhat uncou-
rageous solution was confirmed in 1869 by a convention between
Turkey and Persia, in which each side undertook to respect the
status quo until a settlement was arrived at. ()n many occasions,
in 1870, 1873, and 1874, disputes arose, and armed collision was
narrowly avoided. Finally, when in 1878 the European Congress
met at Berlin to rearrange the map of Europe, and generally to
carve up Ottoman territory, the question of the Turco-Persian
border was again raised. Article 00 of that treaty ordered the
evacuation of Kotur by the Turks, and its cession to Persia, and
an Anglo-Russian Commission, of which Generals Hamley and
Zelenoi were the leading members, was appointed in 18/9 to carry
out the provisions agreed upon. In July 1880 they signed a
protocol confirming that agreement, and from the point of view
of international law the question was definitely decided. 1 he
Turks, however, still declined to move, and it was not till some
time later that they finally surrendered Kotur, which is now occu-
1 Major Millingen, author of H ild Life among the Aoords, was in command of
the Turkish garrison of Kotur in 1868, and describes the place in cap. xiii.