Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎585r] (1172/1237)

3
allowed Persian troops to return to garrison the latter town, but so far none have
come to Rezaieh or Tabriz, although the Governor-General has^ twice been
informed that forces have actually left Tehran for this province. The Russian
Consul-General here is very non-committal on this subject and says that he has
^Jj^eard nothing of such troops coming here, which seems to indicate that the Soviet
authorities are not in favour of their coming. My Soviet colleague seems a
reasonable and sensible man, well disposed towards this consulate, but at present
somewhat overweighted by the military and military-political elements here. He
takes his work very seriously, and after six weeks says that he needs another
month in order to size up the situation before he can take a day or two off and
visit the neighbouring districts. He says that, in his opinion, the Persian
gendarmerie are not making a real effort to restore or preserve order in Azer
baijan, hinting that they are interested in the continuance of disorder—which
is just the accusation made by the Persians against the Soviet political branch
here. On the other hand, he was complaining a few days ago (not for the first
time) that the gendarmerie were being culpably ruthless in their treatment of
certain troubled areas. According to the Governor-General, he was referring to
the tracking down by the gendarmes of a gang of murderers who had killed eight
members of one family in the Ahar district and cut all their bodies into little
pieces before throwing them down a mountain-side. As a matter of fact,
M. Koulagenkov is probably partially right in both of his conflicting statements,
but they are almost certainly put into his mouth by the scheming and opportunist
Politruk, which fact takes away a good deal of their weight.
8. There has lately been an unfortunate polemic going on between certain
Tehran newspapers (including Ittilat, Kushish and Pareham) and Azerbaijan
ideologists which does no good by bitter and exaggerated accusations of
separatism, and may do harm, both by causing local resentment and by spreading
unjustified alarm in Tehran and other parts of Persia regarding the situation
here. It is true that some months ago one or two Azerbaijan journals and a few
short-lived societies here made some over-enthusiastic claims for the use of the
local dialect instead of Persian, and for a larger local share in the administration
of this part of Persia, but not enough to justify the charges of separatism,
malevolence and wilful disorder now made in Tehran. It is said that lately
Tabriz newspapers have been stopped in the post on the way to Tehran, and that
the Government has been preventing their sale or circulation there. Responsible
circles in the capital should remember that there are many people here interested
in presenting as dark a picture as possible, and also far too many poor-spirited
Tabrizis of the upper classes idling away their time as voluntary exiles in Tehran,
anxious to excuse their refusal to return to this district by spreading exaggerated
descriptions of conditions here. It would be a very good thing if the Persian
Government would force the majority of these people to come back, and thus
stop the exodus which still continues. Rightly or wrongly it is said that in
Tehran life is so comparatively care-free, and pleasures still so gay, that one can
forget there that there is a war on or a foreign occupation of parts of the country
which apparently acts as a powerful attraction on the neurotic and character
less middle-class women who have remained here so far.
I have, &c.
F. A. G. COOK.