Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎516r] (1034/1237)

• rUi^IG • At Aahabaci on about the 4th November
u ^a^ur tribesman tried t^ cut tnu throat of one of the towns-
men* Thereup on the townsmen closea their shops ana got out their
gnus so fliwposefully that the iiangur, Aamish and Gawei^k tribesmen
ueaided not to bo c&ught in Ui© crumped spaces between houses and
cleared out to the surrounding hillsides, .desultory firing ensued
during which a few persons were wounded*
A group of Mahabad merchants who have transform'd to
Tabriz for tna winter went to the dovernor-Genernl and tiien to
the Auaaian Gonsul-General, urging action to atop the disorder.
The Governor-General obliged by sending telegrams to Tehran and
Mahabad; the Russian Consul-General sent a message to the Governor
General placing on the Persian Government tne reaponsicility for
ending the disorder and hinting that if tney failed the Russians
would have to take action.
The Governor-General, as X have reported by despatch,
had planned to negotiate with the Kurds for their re-submission
i to t ne central authority, out he bias not moved fast enough. In
coiisequence of this latest disorder at Mahabad it was decided in
principle to send Persian troops and gendarmes, one battalian of
eacn, to take charge, and Ghazi iionaamed came to me to say he
feared this would result in fighting. At the end of November,
; however, there was no sign of troops or gendarme® being available
for this job.
* COALlUh,A. cegg,jvu-du;.. . The Turkish Consul-General has taken
his leave and departed by car via Krserum, accompanied by an
omnibus specially hired for nis dogs, and by this time will have
been reunited with his German mistress whom he had to send away
from Tabriz. He was a very sick man when he left.
In my reports in the early summer I tried to describe
the atmosphere of Eezaieh where I found everyone trying to arm
himself at all costs, convinced that his neighbour might fire on
Aim at any moment. I recorded that the Turkish Vice-Consul kept
in his bedroom a whole armoury, ranging from a Persian machine-
gun to an automatic pistol. Towards tne end of the month he
arrived in Tabriz travelling to Tehran as courier, and he brought
a breath of tne itezaieh atmosphere with him. In his car he
carried a rifle; a lovely piece which had been presented by
the liauser people to Oliver fasha and sold from his estate. To
demonstrate its lightness and beauty he produced two types of
fersian army rifles kept by tue Turkish Consulate-General here.’
Then when he coxae to lunch it was observed that his coat caught
in tne outt of a pistol in his hip pocket. If the Turks are^right
with all their experience of these parts, in taking such precau
tions to protect theaeelve® and tneir consular premises, then we
are sadly neglectful in this Consulate-General.
It is curious how unlike their reputation for sturdy
imperturoability are the Turks one meets here. The outgoing
Consul-General could talk of little but the missing half (latterly
it became two-thirds) of nis intestines and his succession of
maladies; 1 near with dismay that nis successor is a sick man too*
The recently appointed Consul suffers from arterio-scleroais and
has giddy fits if he eats anything more solid than yaghourt. The
outgoing Consul from Hesaleh suffers from some incurable skin
disease. The Vice-Consul is fit but he long® to get away and has
been trying to persuade a colleague at Rhodes to swop with him;
but trie Rhodes man says he prefers British bombs to the Russians*
All are excitable and profoundly antl-Rueelan.
On November 7th the Russian Consul-General gave the
type of reception usual for that day.
The American Consul lias been here since April. On
/November