Coll 28/112B Persia. Tabriz. Monthly dispatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan, & misc: reports.’ [‎141r] (282/451)

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ta t ere were Azerbaijan troops and Fids* is* in fact, during our
two hours' stay vfe saw only one Kurd and he was unarmed. However,
Captain Gogarin asked the Assistant Faraandar what the truth of the
rumour was. The question caused an exchange of thoughtful looks among
officials, and the Assistant Fanaandar replied with a speech in
the style of a Democrat newspaper Leader, to the effect that though the
Kurds, of course, had their separate Government outside Azerbaijan,
within Azerba ijan there were neither Kurds nor rt /ijam ,, , but only Azer
baijanis. He made it clear, all the same, that there were no Kurds
sharing in the admin ist ret ion of Khoi.
9. Sty Armenian driver, meanwhile, was talking with local people in
the garage, and he later informed me that about a fortnight before a
force of some three hundred Kurds of the 3hikkak, bearing allegiance
to Omar Khan, had entered the town and had taken over the police and
finance department and had set up control posts on the Eastern approehes
to Khoi. Some days later the democrat Government at Tabriz had despatch
ed a force 700 Fida’is to Khoi and on the arrival of this force the
Kurds had withdrawn. There had been no fighting.
10* We also tried to clear up the question of passes for travel
within Azerbaijan. The Security Police official, who was obviously
the authority on this, said that travel could be permitted only on t£ie
authorisation of the Govern or-General. When asked if this applied also
to natives of Azerbaijan he gave no definite rerly.
11. The road from Khoi to Kaku (about 95 miles) I found in no worse
repair than when I travelled on it last year, but here again, it would
need considerable improvement to make it fit to bear much military
traffic. The country is very sparsely inhabited and there are no
control posts. In Maku we were stopped by a policeman who took us to
the Govemorate, where we found preparations had been made for our
arrival. The Farmandar was absent in Tabriz and his place was taken by
his assistant, an elderly, subdued-looking man, a native of Maku, who
gave the impression of being an old minor government official whom the
Democrats had retained for his usefulness. He said he had learnt
Russian during the occupation in the 1914-18 war. His orders, clearly,
were not to let us out of his sight and he underwent some mental suffer
ing which could not but excite compassion when Captain Gogarin decided
to go for a walk while I stayed in the house. He got out of the dilem
ma by leaving a sentry outside the room while he himself accompanied
the Captain on his stroll.
12. We asked the Assistant Fam^ndar for permission to visit the
frontier post of Bazergan and the village of Batfhcheh Jikh, a few miles
along the road to Bazergan, where, but for the obduracy of the Soviet
Town Co’mnandant, I should have been entertained last year (please see
my Despatch Wo. 11 of August 13th,, 1945) . The Assistant Farmandar
refused us permission to go to Bazergan as it was not written on our
pass, but seemed willing to permit us to go, under escort, to Baghcheh
Jikh. However, at that point the local Head of the Security Hoi ice
came in, and after scrutinizing our document and holding a whispered
conversation with the Assistant i^armandar flatly refused to let us
move out of the town. The Security Policeman, having made sure we could
get up to no mischief, then departed and left the burden of our enter
tainment on the shoulders of the titular authority. The latter’s native
hospitality was not altogether strangled by the controls of Democrat
policy and he proved an attentive if cautious and uncommunicative host.
But to receive hospitality at all from Democrat authorities is a vast
improvement on the conditions that have prevailed since the revolution
of last December, and the Assistant Farmandar clearly could not be
blamee d for the aggressive spirit of the Vaku fleas or the sand-flies
which gave them such close air support.
A3 Wt