'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎184] (219/714)

PERSIA
which she defended her intrusion was the necessity of putting down
the Turkoman pirates who infested the southern and eastern shores
of the Caspian, and, after their fashion, robbed, pillaged, and carried
off their captives into slavery. The Russians do not appear either
then or since to have formally disputed the Persian ownership of
the island, which is unquestionable ; but to have justified their stay
as the consignees of police powers which the Persians were inca
pable of exercising themselves, and which after a time were tacitly
recognised by the latter. For this purpose a small naval armament
was collected, four or five vessels belonging to which and one gun
boat, under the command of a Russian commodore, still lie off the
Russian naval station. 1 It is needless to say that the piratical
escapades of the Turkomans have long ago been completely quelled.
The Russians, notwithstanding, have never thought of giving back
their trust, and would now be very much insulted at any suggestion
that Ashurada was not their freehold property.
The island, however, is low, swampy, and most unwholesome.
For the last fifty years it has been reported as being slowly eaten
away by the sea; and the surrounding conditions have
thff 1 0 in fact changed so much as to render the descriptions of
isla nd on ly half that period ago quite obsolete. Eastwick left a
most minute and accurate account of the locality as he found it in
18G2. 2 At that date there were two islands. Great and Little
Ashurada. The first of these was severed by a channel about half a
mile in width from the end of the long promontory of Mian Kaleh
(called by the Russians Potemkin), and was about one and one-third
mile long by three-quarters of a mile broad. This was the Russian
naval and military station. Then came shoal water for half a mile,
18G6. Russia prepares to garrison Gez, but is forestalled by Persia.
1869. Russian occupation of Krasnovodsk.
1870. Russia claims the coast down to the Atrek. ,
1871. Russian occupation of Chikishliar.
For an interesting incident that occurred in 1851, but is not mentioned b}
Rawlinson, vide Lady Shell's Glimpses of Life in Persia, pp. 215-242. The
Turkomans descended upon the island one night, and, catching the Russians drunk
or napping, slew some of their number. The Russian Government insisted on the
recall of the Prince Governor A Prince of the Royal line who also acted as Governor of a large Iranian province during the Qājār period (1794-1925). of Mazanderan, the Shah's own brother, although
he could not be credited with the most remote responsibility in the matter.
Otherwise, the Czar threatened to withdraw the Russian Legation.
1 These were reported by a visitor in 1890 to have shrunk into two despatch
boats and two or three hulks.
2 Journal of a Diplomate, vol. ii. pp. 26-43.