Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎222r] (446/1237)

* 777 7 ^ (, ^ <
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Tabriz .-'iery fpy 1944 > Xo. ^Q , ; 7^SS> th ?
to November ,50th
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^00* Gen- r& 1 itu->tloru The oil fiuestioih’atontinjies to b<s th& dom-
1 subject or Interest in AaSrt^^ en t ir ii« of the
oviet authorities, which wer# a lit le uncertain after it wbb un
derstood that the Russian Government hrd dropped its request for
a concession, have now become clearer: they are evidently to keep
agitation in these provinces simnering until the policy of the new
cabinet Is announced; them, if Sayat takes the same line as 3a*Id,
.to bring the pot to the boil once more. Towards the end of the
eriod now under review it has been noticed that the Tudeh Party
S 4 d the Soviet authorities anticipate that Bayat's attitude will
be unacoo odating, and the ground is obviously being prepared for
the exercise of the same sort of pressure against him as was used
against Sa*ld. Such meetings of the Tudeh Party and the Jibhei
Azsdi as have been held have been perfectly orderly, but there is
a feeling among the merchants - always^extremely sensitive to threats
of possible disorder - thut the end of the present w<ek may see
more disturbances.
Clemente in the agitation that have become more noticeable
in the last two weeks are hostility tow rda Beyyid Zi® - after the
fall of Si^id he has be n given pride of place as the arch ’traitor’;
and a widening of the scope of the agitation to include demands for
adsainistr tive and agrarian reforms.
309. erslan Officials. Khalil Fahimi, I iniater without Portfolio
in ^a’i&’s cabinet, and in the new cabinet of Bayat, arrived in
Tabriz on November ££nd., coming from Ikmeh via Hiandmib and
Hezaieh. (Gee paragraph 315 below).
Mohawaad 11 agsvll, the acting director of Finance, in
structions for whose transfer were received some time ago, h^s now
left Tabriz. The functions of Director of Finance have been as
sumed by Mr. Thomas Allen, the American head or the Bunply Depart
ment.
310. Tabriz Deputies. The question of the rejected Azerbaijan
deputies has been Included recently in the Tudeh indictment of the
Central Government, but it se ms to have been brought up not as a
setter of the first importance in itself but rsther ss an addition
al proof of the reactionary and undemocratic character of the
present Majlis. It has been coupled by one sneaker at least with
the charge that it was the ’Tehran Governiasnt’ that rigged the last
elections in Azerbaijan: an accusation which indicates some con
fusion or Ideas, but is interesting for its assumption as a matter
of course that the ©lections were rigged by someone.
ilrdashez Hovhanassi&n, the tSideh deputy for Armenian and
Assyrian minorities, held a public meeting in the Firdausi School
on November 17th. His speech was a general att ok on the reaction
aries in Tehran, and u warning tbut the new government was likely
to prove as unaccepatoblo to true liberals as Sa’ld’s/ He came out
strongly, of course, for the immediate gr nt of th© oil concession
to Russia, but kept most of his energy for an attack on feyyid Zia,
who, he insisted, should be expelled from Iran.
311. Russian Affairs . Thera ere signs that the Russian military
authorities, no doubt in anticipation of tan intensifioation of the
agit tion against the Persian Government, are exe cislng a s rioter
control over the Persian polio© and gendarmerie. It is 3s 5 srned on
fairly reliable authority that the Governor-General in Tabriz has
received telegrams from the chiefs of police of tt number of towns
In tne w lilrd Tstan informing him thot they have been instructed by
the local Soviet military authorities to consider orders from them
authorities and was told by the Governor-General that the matter
was being referred to Tehran but that in the meantime he should
obey the Russians. , „ 4
’Artillery Day’ w^s celebrated by the Russian forces in
n*r , /Tabriz
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