'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎524] (587/714)

524
PERSIA
afford much scope for political discontent among the former ; and
Azerbaijan is probably at this moment the most loyal of the frontier
provinces. Its inhabitants (with the exception of the Kurds, who
will be dealt with separately, and of whom it would be unsafe to
predicate loyalty to anybody), being of the Turkish stock, are
more stubborn and self-reliant than the docile and supple Iranian ;
and it may be asserted that, were resistance to a foreign invader
ventured upon, it would be far more effectively displayed by the
Azerbaijanis, in spite of their proximity to Russian territory and
Russian arms, than by the lethargic peoples of Khorasan.
Russia has been, not unnaturally, credited with designs upon
Azerbaijan second only in seriousness and intensity to her
Russian yearning for Khorasan. Just as, after the war of 1857,
views England, in the opinion of many persons well qualified
to judge, acted foolishly in the surrender of certain posts in the
south, such as Mohammerah and Bushire, which were then in
her possession, so Russia is believed many times to have regretted
that she did not retain a little more in the settlement of Turko-
manchai. That that settlement was as negatively favourable, or as
little unfavourable, to the Persians as it now appears to have been,
was mainly due to the wise counsel of Sir John McNeill, who
persuaded Fath Ali Shah to yield before more was demanded. Sir
Justin Sheil, speaking with the authority of a British Minister in
Persia, said :—
Had Russia known then as well as she now (circ. 1850) does the
value of Azerbaijan, commercial, political and material—its richness
in corn, mineral productions, and soldiers—there can be little doubt
that that province too would have been absorbed by the Holy
Empire. 1
Trade between Europe and Persia in this quarter has commonly
entered or left Azerbaijan by one of two routes—either through
Trade of Turkish territory from Trebizond in the south -eastern
Azerbaijan corner of the Black Sea, or through Russian territory
from the Caucasus. The former route was inaugurated by Abbas
Mirza over sixty years ago, with the double desire of encouraging
British trade with Persia, to which he was very friendly, and of
injuring the Russian trade route, to which he was naturally hostile.
This prince deputed an agent to London and established correspon-
1 Note D to Lady Shell's Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia.