Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎81r] (162/1237)

is tappliedi the Soviet authorities in Maku say that a special permit
is necessary and can only be obtained from the Soviet Consulate-General
in Tabriz 5 the latter, when applied to, denies knowledge of the
regulation* According to the Turkish Consul-General at Itez&ieh, ine
Turkish Government offer every encouragement for the use of this Uouter
the Turkish railways run a lorry service twice weekly from Trebizondto
Bayazid (the Turkish frontier post) and back. I have heard unofficially
aijUa returning to Tabriz that the Russians are going to permit traffic
more through Bazergan.
27. Maku being a pastoral rather than an agricultural region, prices
of all foodstuffs except meat and butter are higher tnan in the other
country towns. The region is poor and rocky, and such cultivation as
there is barely suffices for the neeas of the inhabitants. I was told,
for example, that most vegetables have to be brought from Khoi. i-'uel
is scarce: poor quality firewood costs 7GG to 500 rials per khalvar of
f>00 kilogrammes compared with 400 to $QQ rials in Tabriz, and 25 O rials
in Rezaiehi and in the last two towns the wood is of good quality* The
population of Maku is estimated at about £,000 persons. The situation
of the tom is striking, being built on the steep slope binder an
overhanging cliff on one side of a narrow defile* Enormoue rocks
high above the houses seem only precariously attached to their parent
mountain, and if any one of them fell it would, one supposes, carve a
lane clean through the huadle of rickety buildings. But the people of
Maku declare that vfithin the memory of the oldest citizen no rock has
ever fallen, and, in the reassuring philosophy of **what hasn’t happened
won* t ,f seem to abide tranquilly beneath the shadow.
28. I left Maku at noon on August oth, followed by my escort. From
Khoi I made a detour through Julfa. cniefly to ascertain whether that
route, although longer, is not easier than the rough road between karand
and Khoi. The road from Khoi to Julia, however, though metalled, is in
such poor repair, and crossed by so many narrow watercourses, as to make
it just as slow and just as hard on a car as the direct Marand-Khoi road.
From Julfa to Marana, the road is excellent. At Julfa my Captain left
me to complete my journey to Tabriz unescorted. In thanking him ior
his care I remarked that the wicked people about wiem they had told me
at Rhci must have all run away when they saw him, for I had not seen a
single one. I think he saw the joke. I reached Tabriz at 9 p.m.
20 . X am conscious that much of this despatch is a 'Chronicle ox ‘•'•ussian
misdeeds, witnessed or suspected, but I feel I may be believed il I v>ay
that in this province at least the Russian authorities thesuielves ore
largely to bl&iae for the suspicions one entertains about them and for
the seeming bias of such reports as this. It is extraordinarily
diff icult, X have founu in the past year, to induce even my colleagues
of tlie Soviet Consular Service to talk in a frank and open way about
local problems. I think it is true to say that the only occasions on
which tney «ver volunteer inioxmation about anything that is happening
in the province is when they are preparing the ground for seme campaign,
or are putting up anticipatoiy justification for some contemplated action.
As a result, my information must be di'awn in large part from p^anianand
admittedly anti-Kussi&n sources, and no matter how much salt I a Gd to
this info mat ion, the substance of it remains. It is with this
ireservation in mind that I report my general conclusion ircca tnis tour,
I that the Kussians are more determined tnan ever to maintain tneir no Xu on
I this province. I was not able to obtain any precise info mat ion on the
» point, but X strongly suspect that tho Soviet gax*rison in *«estorn
Azerbaijan nas been increased in recent months. Several oi my
informants assured me that this was so, especially in the region 01 the
Turkish frontier — though I heard in Maku that in that oirtetion
Turks have more troops on the frontier’ than the Russians, more, m -.act,
than they have had there during the whole war. ^ut I myself cert; inly
saw many more Russian troops round bhahpur than I did last February, and
one informant said that the hills west of the town were "swarming" with
them. Another told me that there were 4,000 SoViet cavalry encamped
in Rauza Ghai, near kavana. The troops* being in camp or training
/on