‘A collection of treaties, engagements and sanads relating to India and neighbouring countries’ [‎17] (34/578)

PERSIA.
17
arrangements respecting the disposal of slaves found and the punish
ment of the slavers.
In 1882 the Russian Minister at Tehran informed the Persian Govern
ment that, as Persia had not asserted her sovereignty over the Tekke
Turkmans of Merv, the Russian Government could not now recognize
such sovereignty. The Persian Minister of Foreign Affairs replied thai
Persia, although she could not consider her territorial rights over Merv
as invalidated by the reasons given, would nevertheless not take any
action with respect to the allegiance of the Tekkes without consulting
Russia; and it subsequently transpired that the Russians had already,
in the autumn of 1881, concluded an agreement with the Tekkes of Merv
b} which mutual protection was guaranteed to the subjects of both parties,
and Russian agents, to the exclusion of all others, were alone to
be received at Merv.
In 1884 Merv surrendered to the Russians, who then occupied Sarakhs
on the giound that it had always belonged to the Tekke Turkmans of
Merv.
In the same year representations were made by the Porte
that, in violation of the protocol of 1869, an armed Persian
force of 500 horsemen had entered and sown the disputed district.
1 he I ersians still maintained that the lands were undoubtedly on the
Persian side of the frontier as determined by the Erzerum Agreement of
184<, which fixed the status quo in certain districts. The district was
then occupied by Turkish troops; whereupon a joint note was addressed
by the English and Russian Legations at Tehran to the Turkish and
Persian Governments, asking that the troops might evacuate the district,
and that a map shewing the frontier might be prepared together with a
memorandum explaining the pretensions of Persia.
In May 1889 the Persian Government complained of a Turkish attack
on the village of Kadkhoda Ali, in the district of Khanikin, to which
the Turkish Ambassador at Tehran replied by complaining of the occu
pation by Persians of lands at Vazneh on the Turko-Persian frontier,
which he declared to be undoubtedly Turkish. Persia proposed the
appointment of two engineers to decide as to the proprietary rights to
\ azneh, but to this the Turkish Government did not agree. In July of
the same year a Kurdish inroad took place at Abagir in the district of
Urumia, which was equally claimed by both Governments. In January
1890 the Turkish Government stipulated that, before any agreement
should be discussed respecting Vazneh, the lands in dispute should be
evacuated by the Persians. In April a protocol was drawn up by the
Persian (xovernment and submitted to the Porte for the settlement ol
the question, by which Persia agreed to evacuate the district pending
the decision. The frontier in the Khanikin district is now (1930) that
demarcated by the 1913 Frontier Commission.
In 1888 the New Oriental Bank Corporation opened branches at
Tehran and in other Persian towns.