Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎553r] (1108/1237)

[31—48]
^ TH K^gCUMENT IS THE PROP ERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
&
v*" PERSIA
5<X
^ 'McA^T.
With the Compliments
of the
Under Secretary of State ^
CONFIDENTIAL. for Foreign
^ i ^070
' u\° L: f ■ 0..
July 8, 1942.
v
E 4074/163/34]
Section 3 .
Copy No. 1 j 4
Mr. Holman to Mr. Eden.—(Received July 8.) Q
(No. 191.) . . ^
HIS Majesty’s representative presents his compliments to His Majesty’s
Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and has the honour to transmit
herewith a copy of a confidential report on the Internal Situation at Tabriz, by
His Majesty’s "Consul-General, Tabriz, No. 17 of the 10th June, 1942.
e*)~o-
Tehran, June 17, 1942.
(No.
Sir,
17.
Enclosure.
Consul-General Urquhart to Mr. Holman.
Confidential.)
/Z^ - -
^ 7 - 0 . x
Tabriz, June 10, 1942.
I HAVE reported to you certain vague rumours about trouble between the
Persian authorities and the Shahsevans, but until to-day I have not met anyone
who was able and willing to tell me exactly what the trouble was. This morning
I had a visit from the Governor of Khoi, and I now have the honour to put before
you the gist of what he said. I would earnestly request that he should not be
quoted to anyone as the source of the following information, because the quotation
would probably be repeated to him and almost certainly make him less communica
tive in future.
2. Mr. Kabiri has no Shahsevans in the area under his charge, but he is a
member of a leading Maragha family and himself owns property there. He has
every interest to keep himself informed of what takes place in the Maragha
district, and he has the best sources of information to draw upon.
3. Eastwards of Maragha lies Hastarud, a mountainous district largely
unsurveyed as yet, where live pastoral tribes, half Kurd, half Shahsevan. These,,
like all "the tribes of Azerbaijan, acquired fire-arms when the Persian army was
defeated, and, according to the Governor of Khoi, it was decided to apply to them
the Hashimi method, the same which has had such disastrous results around
Pezaiefn X~foree of gendarmes was organised to go against them, and civilians
from the Maragha district were armed to strengthen and support the gendarmes.
The landlords of Maragha and their men combined readily with the gendarmes
for this expedition, because the tribes are relatively weak and because there was
a definite prospect of acquiring something in the way of loot. The tribes at first
did not resist; they surrendered some weapons. When, however, the gendarmes
used violence to the extent of beating the women, in order to make them hand over
more guns, the tribesmen turned on them and routed them. Thereupon a larger
force of gendarmes, with more armed civilians, was despatched, and this time the
tribesmen were beaten. Their families were scattered, their goods pillaged and
their sheep, to the number of 30,000, according to the Governor, were driven
away. All this happened soon after Nbvruz, say two months ago. Now a band of
sixty dispossessed but armed men are at large, looting wherever they find
anything to loot. Recently they had a fight with gendarmes, and it is said that
they were chased away in the direction of Kurdistan, a region where there are
already more than its share of lawless men with rifles in their hands.
4. The Governor was not able to tell me anything about the trouble reported
from Ardebil, but I find it easy to believe that the authorities may be at logger-
heads with the tribes in Ardebil and in Khalkhal. there was always trouble in
the old days, when the tribes began moving in the spring and early summer, and