Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎9r] (18/1237)

?ils >♦ Transport o^lon^ing to private contractor® and under contract
to the /uiglo-Iranian Oil Company was freely coiaustandeared, and there
^eru a good numbor of kussIsa vehicles (still hearing the United
utatssa Army marJcs, having been supplied under Lend-Oease) to he
seen currying iIda*is about the country. The Coviat Consul-General f a
later explanation of this was th'jt the Uemocrats hud commandeered
lorries belonging to the Xrano-Uoviet Transport Company ! If this is
so tne hed Army must have been rather car-leas with its soldiers
VLnee several were seen uriving truc'x-lJsds Fid a* is about.
Th« r«reian Army garrisons at Xabris, Marageh, M.andusb, Ardebil
ana Aessleh were thus beleaguered by jecemoer 1st. The Fsrsfen
JcKiuaunuant, Sertip burakhshafil, had probably made up his mind that
resistance was useless after it became clear that the three
battalions of re iniorcements sent from Tehran would not be allowed
to pas the *xussians at &a vin. In ny case no g .rrieon, exce t that
iiezaieh (eee para 899 below) took any action si t the Democrats.
hifleSf pistols and perhaps hand-grenades were distributed to
Democrats in the various quarters of Tabriz, and it is a-pare at now
that a plan of assault was worked out well beforehand, though it is
also probable that an understanding existed between th# Tabriz chiefs
of police and Gendarmerie and the national C omit tee. ur ing the few
days before tne openini, of the National Parliament the Democrat
forces were wrought in from North, South and Bast and concentrated
in the villages immediately adjacent to Tabriz. There were numbers
of ihih&dira among tnem, but the great majority were Azerbaijani
pea* ants, nardy men, but not skilled in weapons of war and without
i-uy sort oi uilitiary training.
Dn the night of December lith. - l^th* they begsn to move into
the town. On the 12th. Sartip Durakhahani withdrew his Headquarters
into tue Persian Army barracks on the edge of the town and put hie
force into a posture of defence, ^hile the National Parliament was
bein^, opened on tlw morning of the iSth. the FidaHs clooed up to
all the police stations and the Oenu.rmerie Headquarters in Tabriz
and iusuaoned them to surrender. All promptly did so. There was soma
rifle lire, chiefly for form**, sake, but no casualties.
On December lath, the Democrat forces surrounded the Persian
Azw barracks, but made no move towards storming tnem. During the
altera n hartip ^urakhsh&ai had a parley with representatives of
chv iiatijnal Gavurmaent. He was in \ ireleae o >ia:aui\ i a a t i on with
the Minister of War in Tehran and apparently received instructions
l&tvr that night to surrender. He signed terns *ith U'aafar
x ^siittVari am the surrender cm& izito effect about n p.m. Under
tliti articles of capitulation all officers and man were offered the
cuoioe between going home and re-enlisting in the People*s Army.
Nearly all ah os. to go hO;&e.
The t ,srrisona of ^ianauab and Marageh, as far as is known,
surrendered shortly afterwards; that at Eezaieh, lifter resistance,
on bsceraber 18 th., und that of Ardsbil about the ame tiiae.
There is no evidence that any mssian troops «v?r came into
action against the Persian garrisons anywhere In the province, but
they were behind the Pida’is all th* tLue - both morally «nd
physically, am there not the slightest doubt in the Persian
GojamandanVs mind that they ^ ulu hsve come into action If tr*e Fida’is
had looked likt} iosiug the battle.
2 ^ m of ..the yvutoaomiufl G^ .y_v.rn:uvnt . The National Government
hs:^ defined its purpose as to secure local outonoiny for Azerbaijan
within the Iranian State, but uy the use of terms such as ^Cabinet"
and Prime Ainlater" as well as by the creation of an independent
*jp«ea force - the People*s Army - it showt; that it gives n wider
interpretation than usual to the phrase ^local aut'):io:^y w . Its method
from the beginning nee been t^ br ng the Asetsrbaijan rxjcstion out of