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Democrats strengthened by Caucasian toughs from the Socialist Soviet Republic
of Azerbaijan. The Russian regular forces in the province repeatedly interfered
with the movements of the local Persian forces directed to the suppression of this
uprising and more than once disarmed detachments which were trying to restore
order. On the 19th November the Persian Government despatched a small force
of troops and gendarmes from Tehran to reinforce the garrisons in Azerbaijan,
but this column was stopped by the Red army before reaching Qazvin.
5. From this point onwards the situation steadily deteriorated, and the
whole of Azerbaijan passed rapidly into the hands of the insurgents. By the
middle of December an Azerbaijan National Parliament had assembled at Tabriz
and proceeded to appoint an autonomous Government. It chose as Prime
Minister the Democrat party leader, Dr. Pishavari, who had been elected through
Russian pressure as a member of the Fourteenth Majlis but had not succeeded in
getting his credentials accepted; and approved his nomination of a Cabinet of
nine Ministers, including Ministers for Defence, Interior, Education, Health,
Finance and Justice, but not Foreign Affairs.
6. The Persian Government, having been prevented by the Russians from
using their forces to deal with the insurgents, sought to resolve the problem by
means of diplomatic action. They addressed a note to the Soviet Embassy asking
that permission should be given for the column which had been held up to proceed,
and at the same time they appealed for support to the Governments of the U nited
States and Great Britain. The former responded by proposing that all foreign
troops should be withdrawn by the 1st January, and the latter by expressing to
the Soviet Government the hope that they would be able to instruct their military
commanders to cease to obstruct the movement of Persian forces.
7. To the Persians the Soviet Government replied that they had no
objection in principle to the despatch of forces to Azerbaijan but doubted the
practical wisdom of such action since it might lead to conflict, in which event
the Russian forces in the area would have to be increased. They therefore
considered it inexpedient that any more Persian forces should be despatched to
the northern provinces. The fictitious quality of this pretext is made evident
by the fact that the Russians had about 30,000 troops in Azerbaijan at the time,
i.e., about five times as many as the Persians had in the same area, while the
reinforcements which the Persians proposed to send to Tabriz numbered only
about 1,000 rifles.
8. To the British note the Soviet Government replied that the despatch of
more troops to Azerbaijan was undesirable as it would lead to avoidable bloodshed.
To the United States they responded by a categorical refusal to withdraw their
troops before the date stipulated in the Anglo-Soviet-Persian Treaty of 1942.
(This is discussed in more detail in the section dealing with the withdrawal of
Allied troops.)
9. Soon after the failure of this friendly intervention by the United States
and Great Britain news was received that Mr. Bevin and Mr. Byrnes were to
have talks with M. Molotov at the end of December, and the Persian Government
suspended further diplomatic action to deal with the Azerbaijan question in the
hope that a solution would be found at Moscow.
10. Concurrently with their encouragement and protection of the
Azerbaijan <£ Democrats,” the Soviet authorities in Persia gave a similar
stimulus to the Kurdish nationalists. This is discussed below in the section on
Tribal Affairs. It can be safely assumed, on the available information, that the
Soviet plan is to exploit Kurdish nationalism for Russian ends in much the same
way that they have utilised the racial sentiments and aspirations of the Turki
element in the northern provinces.
11. At the Moscow Conference the British and American delegations
submitted on the 24th December a draft agreement for the establishment, with
the consent of the Persian Government, of an Anglo-American-Soviet Commission
to assist the Persian Government in re-establishing satisfactory relationships
with its provinces through the erection of provincial councils as provided by the
Constitution of 1907. This commission would also make recommendations to the
Persian Government concerning the use of minority languages and would
supervise the first elections to the provincial councils. The commission would
also investigate, and make recommendations on, the withdrawal of Allied troops.
The object of the proposal was to seek Soviet co-operation in limiting Azerbaijan
autonomy and bringing that province back under the authority of the Central
Government The same evening Generalissimo Stalin informed Mr. Bevin that
agreement might be reached on this basis subject to minor amendments. These
were presented on the 25th December and accepted by Mr. Bevin on the
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