'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎657v] (1316/1386)

52
No. 66.
Consul-General Abbott to Earl Granville,—^Received December 13.)
My Lord, Tabreez, November 23, 1880.
I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith to your Lordship copies of three
despatches addressed by me to Her Majesty’s Minister at Tehran regarding Kurdish
affairs, the projected concentration of a Russian force on the Aras frontier, and a
recent audience granted to me by his Royal Highness the Veli Ahd.
With reference to Inclosure No. 2, I have since learned that the Nestorian
women and girls, reported by the American missionaries to have been carried off by
Persian soldiers from the village of Anhar, have been discovered by their relatives.
They had so effectually secreted themselves as to lead their friends to suppose that
they had been captured.
The missionaries have written to me to correct their previous statement on this
subject.
I have, &c.
(Signed) WILLIAM G. ABBOTT.
Inclosure 1 in No. 66.
Consul-General Abbott to Mr. Thomson.
Sir, Tabreez, November 19, 1880.
I HAD this day the honour to send your Excellency the following telegram:—
"Urumia post arrived; Sheikh fled with forces 12th instant. Reference to
telegram of 18th instant, excesses at Anhar and Blou were committed by Persian
regulars and citizens, not by Kurds, upon Sunni and Nestorian population. Will
send details by post.”
With reference to the above, I have further the honour to report that a letter to
me, dated from Oroomiah on the 14th instant, states that on the morning of the 12th
instant it was found that the Sheikh with all his forces had disappeared, and that
there were many evidences that he had gone in haste. Sheikh Sedik was reported to
be at Mergever, and it was given out that the troops from Oroomiah were going in
pursuit of the Kurds.
The Persian troops have committed great depredations on the property of the
villagers, especially of the Christians. Degala and other villages have suffered much.
The people of Geok-Tp went to Taimur Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. Kb an to complain of this. One of
the Protestant pastors said to Taimur that the Sheikh’s troops behaved better than
this, for they did not insult the women.
Since the Sheikh’s departure the Persians have resumed their plundering of
Sunni villages. On the 13th and 14th instant several thousand of the regular forces
and citizens went to Blou and sacked it, burning the houses. It is said that fifty of
the male inhabitants were decapitated, some of them being found in the castle of
Ismail Agha, whither a Persian force had gone in quest of the Sheikh. One man, a
Hadji, was compelled to take the heads of his murdered sons in the skirts of his coat
and parade them through the camp. ign-
The Persian soldiery then committed fresh excesses in other villages.] The
Nestorian village of Anhar, which had been the Sheikh’s rendezvous at one time,"was
plundered, several of the male inhabitants were wounded, and eight women and girls
carried off prisoners.
The American missionaries having made representations to Taimur on behalf of
the Christians of Balou, he placed guards to prevent their being injured during the
pillage of the place, and promised to restrain his troops from committing further
outrages.
I have, &c.
(Signed) WILLIAM G. ABBOTT.