'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎659v] (1320/1386)

56
Inclosure 1 in No. 70.
Consul-General Abbott to Mr. Thomson.
(Extract.) Tabreez, November 25, 1880.
IT is reported that Russian force, expected at Julfa in six days, of which
200 have reached Nakchevan, consists of one Cossack regiment and some pieces
artillery.
Inclosure 2 in No. 70.
Consul-General Abbott to Mr. Thomson.
(Extract.) Tabreez, November 25, 1880.
I HAVE the honour to report that a letter addressed to me on the 17th instant
from Oroomiah states that the Taimur Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. Khan had at last moved in pursuit of the
Sheikh as far as Blou ; that the Ikbal-ed-Dowleh was starting for Mergever, via
Bend and Aga Khan Sertib, following up Sheikh Abd-el-Kader, who was intrenching
himself at Mergever.
The American missionaries have written to me correcting their previous statement
regarding the seizure of Persian soldiers at Anhar of Nestorian women, who had,
it seems, so effectually secreted themselves as to lead their friends to suppose they had
been captured.
The alleged excesses of the Persian soldiery at Oroomiah and Souj Boulak have
called forth a remonstrance from the Turkish Ambassador at Tehran to the Persian
Government, and my Turkish colleague has addressed me on that subject an official
communication of which I beg to inclose a copy. It appears that the Persian Govern
ment have assured the Ambassador that they will instruct the Commanders of the
armies to conduct the campaign upon principles of humanity. His Excellency
refers to Christian as well as Mussulman villages, but it is evident that the indis
criminate destruction of the latter people by Sunnis, their co-religionists, would be
calculated to produce an unfavourable impression at the Porte.
It is reported that about twenty Kurdish villages in the Chehriveren district were
destroyed by the Persian troops, who did not seem at the time to be held in very
effective discipline, and although in some instances, I believe, the inhabitants effected
their escape, it is to be feared that many unoffending persons met with their
death.
I now learn that Medjid Khan’s villages have undergone the same fate, but as
many of them were held in mortgage by the Russian Prevot des Marchands at Tabreez,
the circumstance will probably by noticed by Russian officials in Persia.
Khan Baba Khan, Medjid Khan’s son, has been put to death. At his request,
Persian troops were sent to protect the village he occupied, but finding it fortified,
returned to camp. Subsequently shots fired from this same village killed some Persian
soldiers, upon which the Itimad-es-Sultaneh bombarded it and decapitated the
Khan.
The Persians also intend bombarding Kindergatch, Kadir Aga’s village, his son
Meena Aga having fortified and filled it with armed men, all their efforts to bring him
to terms being useless.
Large numbers of the insurgents, as well as non-combatants who were not dis
affected towards Persia, have fled to Serdesht and other inaccessible regions of Kur
distan at the approach of the Persian army.
Osman Aga Gevrik, of Serdesht, is a powerful Chief, who has held aloof from the
rebellion. The Persian Government should therefore resort to judicious management
in dealing with him. The same observation applies to Chiefs and tribes in the vicinity
of Senneh and Sakiz, who have hitherto remained neutral. Conciliation might make
them useful allies; exaction and violence would convert them into implacable foes.
It will require all the tact and ability of the Sepeh Salar to surmount the difficulties
with which the present position of affairs is surrounded; but he will doubtless be alive
to the necessity of tempering mercy with justice, and not confounding the innocent
with the guilty. Misplaced rigour on the part of Persia would be calculated to
provoke a fresh insurrection in the spring or a religious war between Sunnis and
Shiahs.
The perpetration of further outrages by the Persian soldiery upon unoffending