Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎607v] (1217/1237)

2
with anxiety, and with stories that the villagers all round Tabriz weie coming
into town next day under Soviet auspices, uniting with the mob here an going
to riot. Shortly afterwards Dr. Lamme, of the American Mission Hospital rang
up the American Military Attache, who was staying with me, and repeated tne
story, saying how frightened the Armenian Christians were. 0
5 Although I still felt sure that the agitation was quite unwarranted 1
decided to visit the Russian Chief of Staff that evening and mention the state
of the town. This I was able to do among a number of othei topics o „ con versa
tion, and learnt that (ni) local Russian Headquarters had no feai o (isoicci
next day, expressing mv own confidence that none would be allowed by tnem.
6. Next day it was obvious that the police had taken every precaution iiom
dawn onwards to forestall trouble, and none occurred. Major-General JNovikott
had returned to Tabriz, and in the morning gave a simple reception, which was
attended by all the leading Persian officials. The military parade ongma)
fixed for the anniversary had been cancelled. The Governor-General told me that
a public meeting advertised by the “ democrat " leaders had not taken place, an
that a well-known firebrand had just arrived in Tabriz from Tehran (where he
had been officially exiled for some time), but had advised the local committee
against action liable to embarrass the local authorities at present, much to
everyone’s surprise. On top of this, several copies of a Shiraz newspaper
advocating calm and constitutionalism had been received here, and had quickly
been distributed by the governorate in democratic circles. Agarzadeh saw the
wind taken painfully from his sails, and in the afternoon went around the town
in a carriage, announcing a public meeting at which he, as the people s lea ei
and benefactor, would explain the present situation, ^o sooner had he reached
the venue and began to speak than he was quietly hustled into a car and taken
away—to the surprise of most people—by the Russian authorities.
*7 At the moment of writing T have not heard of local reactions to this.
Local’officials seemed so sure that the Soviet were behind the “ democratic
unrest yet in a conversation I had a week ago with the Russian I raoe Commis
sioner he was equally insistent that the Turkish Consul-General here and his
agents were egging oil the demagogues, to cause trouble for Russian and Persian
authorities alike. In just the same way I hear conflicting reports from Western
Azerbaijan about the Kurdish situation on the frontier. My Turkish colleague
has told me outright that he knows that the Russians are arming the Kurds with
rifles and even machine guns, and are intriguing continually with the tribal
leaders He said that the Soviet authorities about ten days ago invited a number
of these Kurdish headmen even to Tabriz, and provided them one evening with a
box at the local theatre in full view of the Persian authorities. M. Ramazanaglan
declares moreover, that our allies have invited the notorious Sultan Mahmoud to
come over from Iraq and join in their sinister policy, whatever it is. I cannot
' help feeling that the Turks are working themselves up into a greater mistrust
fulness of °the Russians here, and from what my colleague has told me about
middle-class feeling in Erzerum (whence his vice-consul returned not long ago),
the German propaganda svstem is having some success there. People are saying
that it was a great mistake to allow the Soviet to come south along the Turkish
border into Azerbaijan, and that Turkey should have taken some kind of action
in August to prevent it. .
8 There may be also the Armenian question to complicate matters.
A Persian police official tells me that the Kurds and Armenians in North-West
Azerbaijan are combining, presumably against the Shah’s Government. This is
not logical in view of the well-known religious fanaticism of the Kurds, but, of
course 8 it is a trick which has been played by nationalist-minded Kurdish leaders
before’ notoriously Sheikh ObeidullalTin his rebellion of 1880-81, and generally
against the Turkish suzerainty. Certainly any story of Armenian truculence m
tffis part of the world appears particularly to upset the Turkish authorities, as
any conversation with my colleague shows (and he is, of course, imclose touch with
his Government now, and with their consulate in Rezaieh). Nothing would
convince him that the Armenians are not being used by the Soviet m this province,
and he has said several times that if the Armenians cause trouble with the Moslems
here (meaning the Turcophone or what he calls the Turkish population), his
Government will be bound to intervene. As the Armenian minority is not likely
to seek trouble on its own, this can only be construed as a warning to the Russians
who are suspect of backing them.
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