'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎514] (573/714)

514
PEE SI A
CHAPTER XVI
the north-west and western provinces
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear.
S hakspeaee, Macbeth, act iii. sc. 4.
Hie etiam csecos instare tumultus
Sffipe monet, fraudesque et operta tumescere bella.
vlegil, Georg. I. 465.
In passing to the North-Western Provinces of Persia, I am ap
proaching a part of ray subject which, like the Caspian Provinces
Peculiar —^ or different anc l less purely physical reasons—has
political special characteristics and a marked individuality of its
interest of rri . . t • n n- t
Azer- own. Uiese reasons are in the main political, or allied
baijan thereto. Azerbaijan is the province which, excepting
only Khorasan, has more often been violated by foreign invasion
than any other part of Persia. Not seventy years ago it was the
theatre of the last Russo-Persian war. Should that conflict ever
again be renewed, it is all but certain to be the scene of the initial
operations. Its northern borders march with those of the Russian
Trans-Caucasian dominions, and its capital is less than 100 miles
from the Russian frontier. On the west it is coterminous with
the territories of another Power with whom Persia is on worse
terms than with Russia—viz. Turkey—and the borderland with
whom is to this day a matter of dispute and an arena of inter
mittent conflict. Nor is the political problem of Azerbaijan
created by actual contact or possible collision with Russia and
Turkey alone. The province contains within itself human elements
that differentiate it from all other parts of the kingdom. Here,
and in the adjacent regions, are located the famous and formid
able Kurds, whose name has achieved a world-wide reputation as
synonymous with a state of anarchy and deeds of blood. Here,
side by side with these desperate tribesmen, are settled a large
population belonging to an ancient Christian persuasion, who have
attracted to themselves the attention of Europe, and have fired
the missionary enterprise alike of America, France, and Great
ikQOD.
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