Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎596r] (1194/1237)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVEflNM
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PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL
February 4, 1942.
Section 4.
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Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—{Received February 4.)
Copy No. 9(j
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(No. 19. Confidential.)
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 Tabriz despatch No. 56 of the 29th December, 1941, on the
subject of the situation in Azerbaijan. ^ /<hcujlo
Tehran, January 16, 1942. -I ...
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Enclosure.
Consul Cook to Sir R. Bullard.
(No. 56. Confidential.)
gj r Tabriz, December 29, 1941.
’ I HAVE the honour to report that the situation at Tabriz remains as before,
quiet on the surface, but with a good deal of ferment underneath. Public
opinion continues to be puzzled by the attitude of the Soviet authorities towards
the Kurds, which is probably much less Machiavellian than it appears to be, but in
that case gives unnecessary grounds for suspicion. The local discontented and
politically-minded elements are now forming various “ parties, which distribute
membership-cards to their adherents and hold semi-secret meetings in private
houses to satisfy their innate Tabrizi passion for intrigue. The sense of most of
them appears to be that Azerbaijan should be more democratic (a sop to the
watchful Soviet political Cerberus?) and should be virtually separated from the
decadent, tyrannical and unwanted Government of lehran.
2. In the countryside the situation is still uneasy, and the gendarmerie
authorities are obviously nervous, although, in my opinion, much of the trouble is
due to their own sense of inefficiency—<and also to a knowledge of their own
unpopularity. About a fortnight ago a handful of individuals under one
Mohamed Agha collected arms in Tabriz itself, and set out for the Ahar district
gathering lawless adherents as they went. Any gendarmes whom they encountered
on the way apparently handed over their rifles tamely without opposition, but at
last the party came to a large village where the ordinary inhabitants seized and
disarmed them, tied their hands behind them and then asked the authorities in
Tabriz what they should do with them. In the Maragha district the bandit
Hussein Ghuli, whom I have previously mentioned, was able to extort a large
sum of money from the people of Binab, while (according to the Russians) the
force of gendarmerie sent to protect them fled at the first exchange of shots.
Hussein and his band of about 100 men then advanced to near Azarshahr, only
35 miles from Tabriz, where nervousness began to spread in the bazaars. The
gendarmerie thereupon went out in force to the attack, but the bandit got away,
with the loss of only two or three men and a few horses.
3. I mentioned in a previous report that this Hussein Ghuli was in touch
with the Russian garrison at Miandoab. and the Governor-General here now
informs me confidentially that, when he asked certain important Kurdish
chieftains in that area why they did not deal firmly with this (non-Kurdish)
bandit, they replied that the Soviet political authorities had practically forbidden
them to do so. At least six weeks ago General Novikoff told me he was going to
round up Hussein Ghuli himself, but it seems that other ideas have prevailed.
4. Every day the streets of Tabriz see Kurds swaggering about in their
tribal costumes (still theoretically illegal), armed with daggers, pistols and
cartridge-belts, and sometimes carrying rifles or even tommy-guns. These they
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