'The Russians in Akhal' [‎43r] (37/68)

allegiance through him and through the brother
of the Great Agha-Padishah (the Viceroy of the
Caucasus) to ttie Russian. Grovernment.
It is not to be overlooked that, in the representa
tions which all the Yomud Turcomans are said, in
the Russian accounts, to have made, reference
occurs to their molestation, not alone by the Tekes
but also by the Kurds of Persia, among whom, they
^ god, oOO of their orethren lingered in slavery,
whose release the Russian Government was en
treated to effect.
The Kavkas also noted the fact that the repre
sentatives of the Turcomans camping South of the
Attrek on the Caspian coast assured General Ko-
makin that for the last thirty years, ever since the
establishment of the Russian naval station at
Asharada, their people had considered themselves
practically Russian subjects and were always ready
to obey the commands of the Russian Tsar.
On the 2nd (14th) of April 1874, two Yomuds
were despatched by General Lomakin with letters
addressed to the Teke Khans and Aksakals, and to
all the notabilities of that tribe of Turcomans. This,
according to the Kavkas, was all that Russia could
do to bring the Tdkds to terms by pacific means.
The reply received from the Tekes of Akhal* was
a favourable one, the representatives of that people
declared a willingness to serve Russia and to they
Russian orders, and they likewise prayed for Russian
protection against the Kurds of Persia and against
the Goklan tribe of Turcomans.-)* Rut the Tekes
were charged with co-operation with the Khivans
in 1878, and General Lomakin, in sending “trust
worthy ” messengers to Akhal, had the twofold
object of securing a future claim to the allegiance
of the Tek&s and of “ obtaining information of what
“ was going on in the steppes and of the temper
“ of the nomad population,’’ with a view to future
“ contingencies.
Ever since the Russian occupation of Krasno-
vodsk, and perhaps more particularly since the
Russian expedition to Khiva coupled with the hostile
operations against the Yomuds, the Russian autho
rities haYe laboured to show that the Tekes (without
discriminating between those of Akhal and Merv)
were always regarded as subjects, vassals, or tribu
taries of the Khan of Khiva, and that, in fact, they
paid the Khan a tribute of one camel from each
kala, or fort.
It was alleged by the Journal de St. Peters-
bourg, 28th February (11th March) 1876, that the
Goklans of the Upper Gurgan and Attrek valleys,
under Nur-Geldy Khan, were also feudatories or
tributaries ot the Khan of Khiva.
According to the articles in the Journal de St.
Petersbourg, compiled from the reports, &c., re^
ceived from Colonels Stebnitzke and Markozof in
1872, and from General Lomakin in 1875, the ar
rangement entered into by the latter with the Tekes
who were said to have represented their people at
Krasnovodsk in the months of May and June 1874
was that, in lieu of this tribute in kind, the Tekes
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