Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎571v] (1145/1237)

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friends of the Soviet political officers here, this may be considered a heaven-sent
opportunity for the local authorities to deal with their most troublesome
detractors; they immediately closed the press, seized the next issue and have bound
the editor over as regards his future behaviour.
4. r £he truculent-looking and unpopular Kurds who have been loafing about
for some time in Tabriz (largely in the hope of buying sugar and cotton-goodjggi
wholesale from the Russians) have also played into the hands of the authorities
recently, and are being forced back to their own districts. Ten days ago there
was a shooting affray between a Kurd and an Azerbaijani, both being smugglers
and both being killed. The other Kurds in the town rushed to the spot and began
excited threatenings (all being armed, of course), some rushing into the police
stations in quest of Kurds wrongly alleged to have been arrested, fortunately
no further incidents occurred, but the authorities decided to try and remove the
menace. The Soviet Consul-General agreed that the Kurds ought to leave, and
I spoke to two Kurdish notables in that sense. The Governor-General distributed
a quantity of sugar to the leading Kurds, and most have now gone away. At the
same time he published a notice saying that all persons carrying arms in public
would be disarmed by the police, and most Kurds took the hint, only a very few
having had to be disarmed in the street.
5. All these measures could have been taken several weeks ago, but the
authorities are still inefficient, and. as I wrote in my preceding despatch, possibly
did not wish to see public order fully restored, so that they could continue to press
for the return of Persian troops here. It is now known that the Soviet authorities
have agreed to the sending of a military garrison up to a brigade to Tabriz, and
to the increase of the gendarmerie forces in Rezaieh. There is no sign of these
military forces as yet in Tabriz, but about 300 well-armed gendarmerie have
already arrived here from Tehran for Rezaieh. The Governor-General tells me
that the Soviet authorities have agreed to let their troops on the Turkish frontier
work in close co-operation when necessary with these new gendarmerie forces,
so as to check the smuggling and illicit crossings alleged to be going on there.
6. A month ago I mentioned that the Kurdish chieftain Amir Asad had
gone to Tehran by official invitation. Ten days ago, to the surprise of the
Governor-General and many others, he returned here as newly-appointed
Farmandar of Mahabad (Sauj Bulagh), with a motor-car. new clothes and a
considerable sum of Government money to set him up in his new post. He told
me that he had not wished to accept the appointment, but that the Minister of
the Interior had insisted, and had given him authority to maintain 300 mounted
Kurdish levies to preserve order in the whole district, as far as the Iraq borders.
In principle the appointment of a Kurd as Governor of a Kurdish district may
be applauded, but whether the present nomination will be a success remains to be
seen. Amir Asad is an intelligent and ambitious little man. but with no polish or
training and, it need hardly be said, with many jealous Kurdish rivals among
the other tribes over which he is now placed in addition to his own. He will
have to appease many of them with minor posts and suitable emoluments, which
will go hard against the grain. The chief notable of Sauj Bulagh, Ghazi
Mohamed, has already left the town and is probably going to Tehran, doubtless
to intrigue against him. There is another allegedly influential Kurd in this
district, one Sheikh Abdulla, a chieftain reported to have been living at Batas
in Iraq in exile for some time, who has recently crossed into Persia again and
is said to have been consulting with all the leading Kurds in the Rezaieh and
Sauj Bulagh areas. The story is that he has been using his prestige to persuade
the chieftains to cease quarrelling at this critical juncture and join together in
spiritual harmony, although I have heard nothing of any political tinge being
given to this, or any talk of Kurdish independence, which most chieftains now
regard as impracticable. The Russians seem to be curious about him and his
activities and, as I have heard from a good source, have warned him to be gone.
7. There is little news of the rebel Rashid Khan, except that he has been
bombed out of Saqqiz and was said to be inclined towards peace. Amir Asad
informed me that he himself intended to try and fix up some agreement between
the rebel and the Government forces, and that General Shahbakhti in Tehran
had authorised him to do so. I was surprised when he asked earnestly if I also
authorised him to try and settle the Kurdish revolt, and whether he' could tell
Rashid Khan that I was in favour of a truce. But only a few days before the
Governor-General had also asked my views equally earnestly on his own desire
to get in touch with the rebel and make peace, at the alleged instance of M. Soheily