Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎455r] (912/1237)

5
In the mountains to the south-west of ftezaieh Nuri Beg still rules the roost.
Recently the Persians wished to establish a gendarmerie post in Ushnuabad, but
Nuri Beg sent some of his armed Kurds down to prevent it and, without blood
shed, was successful, and the project has been shelved. Nuri Beg is also saio to
have three Armenians working for him at his headquarters in Anbi village,
manufacturing cartridges and grenades.
Another incident, without political importance, occurred a few weeks ago m
^^the village of Babarud, where a young Armenian of bad repute started a
collection amongst Armenians for a tank for the Soviet army! At one house he
refused 16 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. and demanded 20 as a minimum. Whilst he was insulting the
owner of the house the latter's son arrived and tried to drive the collector away
with the help of a pitchfork; whereupon the Armenian pulled out a revolver and
shot the son dead. He then made off into the mountains. The Russian Consul is
reported to have given orders that the murderer is to be caught and brought to
justice. .
To resume, the general opinion is that the Kurds will not repeat then
depredations of last year if the Russians show that they will not stand for it. As
the Russians in the person of M. Maximoff, have recently been showing a firmer
front towards the Kurds, there is less apprehension than might otherwise have
been evoked by the clashes between the Kurds and the Persian gendarmerie.
looking further ahead, the Christian community in Rezaieh fears that, if the
Russians ever leave the area before the Persians are sufficiently strong to ensure
public security, the Kurds, turning the tables on history, will “ come down like
the wolf on the fold.’’
The only original suggestion which I heard as a way out of the present
impasse came from Commandant Kemal, the Chief of the Persian gendarmerie.
He said that the best solution would be for the present Anglo-Russo-Persian
treaty to be scrapped and for Persia to declare war on the Axis, thus becoming an
active instead of a passive ally. The Russians, he thought, could then have no
objection to the Persian army in Western Azerbaijan being strengthened
sufficiently to be able to deal with the Kurds. He added that many Persian army
officers were of his opinion. This may be true, but if so I suspect that it is the
success of the Russian offensive and a desire to be on the right side of the fence
that has brought about this change of heart, i he Russians might be expected to
receive such a suggestion a little coldly.
7. Propaganda .—Our propaganda is extremely popular. I took with me a
large sack of material for our agent in Rezaieh. The whole consignment was
sold out within twenty-four hours. Russian propaganda does not appear to
exist. The Russians seem to approve of our objective propaganda, but to be a
little bit jealous, perhaps because they have not themselves got an organisation
equally efficient. We need to walk warily and, above all, to keep the Russians
well informed of what we do and of what we intend to do in this sphere. I told
the Soviet Consul about our cinema van, and said I hoped it would be coming
to Western Azerbaijan in the spring. He professed it to lie a good idea, and
said he had asked for the same thing, but that he had only been able to get the loan
of a single military cinema van for one brief tour (this was presumably the van
which borrowed several of our news-reels).
Whilst the Russians seem to be doing nothing in the way of propaganda, I
was rather surprised to find that the Turkish Vice-Consul is going in for it in
quite a large way. Wh. are doing it as a war-time necessity, and the Russians
would be equally entitled to put their point of view on the subject of the evils
of the Nazi and Fascist regimes; but the Turks, as neutrals, have not the same
legitimate excuse, and I fear that Nashaat Beg’s enthusiasm may get him into
difficulties with both the Persians and the Russians. His latest idea is to send
sets of coloured diagrams explaining how to combat malaria, tuberculosis, &c., all
in Turkish, to the local hospital and to local doctors. There is no doubt a very
great need for such instruction, but, coming from the Turkish Consulate, it is
fikely to be sadly misinterpreted by the Persians and, which is more important,
by the Russians.
8. Local Politics .—The situation in Rezaieh appears to be neither better
nor worse since the departure of the Ustandar. The bringing of Rezaieh under
the control of the Ustandar in Tabriz has been met with complete indifference
amongst the population. The only remark I heard on the subject was to the
effect that there was now one less to dip into the till. Meanwhile, Dr. Marzeban,
who returned to Tehran in December ill the official car, has not so far sent the
car back to Rezaieh. with the result that the Farmandar has to do without.