Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎435r] (872/1237)

ID. KURDS . There is little to add to the remarks I made
on this subject in my last report. The Kurds appear to have
taken the Russian warnings to heart and to be behaving. At the
beginning of May the Parmandar summoned Kurdish leaders or their
representatives to a meeting in Rezaieh. About twenty turned up
but none from the Baradost area. The Soviet Consul and Colonel
Beylari Bey were also present. The Kurds promised that there
would be no breach of the peace this year and the Soviet Consul
re-iterated hin warning as to the consequences if they
forgot their promise. The Chief of Poiice is sceptical and says
the Kurds are all liars and not to be trusted a yard. He himself
is not an Azerbaijani (he scarcely speaks any Turki) so he
probably reflects the attitude of the central government towards
the Kurds. The Soviet Consul does not think the Kurds will
give any trouble provided the Persian authorities act reasonably.
The Nazlu ircident, reported in my last memorandum, has been
’settled’ by being more or less shelved. The Soviet Consul
says he does not feel that any good will be achieved by pushing
it further as a good deal of the responsibility for the incident
rests, in his opinion, with the gendarmerie. He told me that
when the Persians decided, with Russian consent, to establish the
gendarmerie post at Nazlu a party of some twenty gendarmes was
sent to the village. Instead of driving up in a lorry or
marching openly up to the village, they deployed, encircled the
village and crept towards it. The villagers, fearing they were
about to be attacked, prepared to defend themselves. Both
sides, of course, claim that the other fired the first shot.
The Consul takes the view that this is immaterial and he is
not prepared to punish the villagers for what he considers
to have been stupid provocation on the part of the gendarmerie.
Just before I left Rezaieh a small clash was reported in
the north between two factions of the Shikak, the one led by
Sartip and Hassan Hinari and the other by Jmar Khan and Kutai
Mohammed. The incident is, I believe, just one of the usual
family squabbles and has no significance.
11. RUSSO-TURKISH RSLATIQNS . These appear to be good and
the new Turkish Consul, Mr. Orhan Cunden, will, I think, be a good
antidote to the Vice-Consul. Mr. Q-unden told me that he thought
that Nashaat Bey, the Vice-Consul, who had been in charge of the
Consulate for the past year, had ’gone off the deep end r on the
subject of Kurdish sheep-ste ling excursions into Turkish territory.
He himself did not intend to take them too seriously. There
always had been raids of this nature and as long as there were any
Kurds they might be expected to continue. He did not believe for
one moment, as did Nashaat Bey, that the Soviet authorities
countenanced, much less encouraged, these raids. A few
irresponsible Russian soldiers in the frontier areas might, he
said, turn a blind eye, especially if they got a little fresh
mutton out of it, and who could blame them in these hard times?
One problem which seemed to be uppermost in Mr. Gunden’s
mind was the post-war future of Azerbaijan. He tried very hard to
get me to say that the Russians had no intention of leaving after
the war. I only replied that I could see no reason for doubting
the promises given by the Soviet Government and embodied in the
Tripartite Treaty.. In view of his insistence, and also because he
has come so recently from Ankara, I concluded that the Turkish
Government are considerably exercised over this question.
Mr. Gunden told me that there had recently been quite
important Soviet troop movements in the Salmas area and asked me
what I thought about it. I replied that.I could claim no
/inside