Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎356v] (712/749)

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Azerbaijan.
6 . Reports from more than one Kurdish source tell of the forcible billeting
of Mulla Mustafa’s followers by the Russians on the various Kurdish tribes in the
neighbourhood of Lake Urumiyeh. According to one source 150 families are
billeted at Bukan, 150 on villages between Sulduz and Mahabad, 100 on Mahabad
itself. The rest appear to be distributed between Ushnu and Naqadeh. A
considerable sum of money has also been collected from the Persian Kurds for r
relief. The same source reports that, left to themselves, Mulla Mustafa’s followers x
would probably prefer to seek an amnesty from the Iraqi Government and return'^
to Iraq, but that the Russians are preventing this and have instructed the
fugitives to say that they have been reduced to their present plight by bombing
from British aircraft.
7. The Azerbaijan Democratic party has sent a circular to foreign consuls
in Tabriz giving details of alleged atrocities committed by gendarmes against
peasants and asks that the Great Powers be informed of the “people’s”
sufferings. That the people have suffered is true, but not at the hands of the
gendarmerie but at the hands of hireling cads of Armenians, Assyrians and
Chaldeans, who, emboldened by the support of their Russian masters, have the
temerity to style themselves the people of Azerbaijan. Meetings of the Democratic
party held in Tabriz on the 15th November demanded immediate election of the
Provincial Council and the adoption of the Turki language.
8 . The general situation has deteriorated sharply in Azerbaijan during the
past few days. A party of Democrats attacked Mianeh Railway Station, over
powered the railway police and shot an officer and four Persian soldiers of the
Conscription Department, the sole representatives of the Persian army in
Mianeh. The town is said to be in their hands. Near Maragheh a skirmish took
place between Democrats and gendarmes. Two of the Democrats were wounded
and thirteen made prisoner. Later the Russian Commandant at Maragheh
intervened by disarming the gendarmes and setting free the prisoners. The Chief
of the General Staff also informed the British Military Attache that the towns of
Ahar, Maragheh and Sarah are in the hands of the Democrats, that they are being
issued with new Brno rifles by the Russians, that these rifles are part of those
taken by the Russians from the Persian army at the time of the occupation, that
Red army soldiers have been put into mufti and armed, that attacks on Persian
Government buildings and Persian army barracks are expected very soon and that
the Persian General Officer Commanding, Tabriz Division, had been ordered to
defend these localities to the last.
Russian Interests.
9. Some further news has been received regarding the report that the
Russians were actually engaged in shipping oil from the Ashuradeh peninsula
near Bandar Shah (see Intelligence Summary No. 41, paragraph 15). It now
appears that the pipes and other material seen were brought for the purpose of
construction of oil tanks at the port of Bandar Shah and the improvement of the
pipe-line from the port to the town in order to facilitate the discharge of oil from
tankers.
10. There is no sign of any relaxation of Russian control of the northern,
north-western and north-eastern sections of the Iranian State Railway. Some
twenty officers of field rank are still employed at Tehran railway station alone.
Iraqi Interests.
11. Seyyid Ahbas Mehdi Beg, formerly Iraqi Minister in Tehran, has been
appointed Minister in Moscow and has arrived in Tehran on his way to his
new post.
Czechoslovak Interests.
12. The Czechoslovak Military Attache has announced that his office has
been temporarily closed. Lieutenant-Colonel J. Lipa and Captain Kalmus are
to leave shortly.
13. A party of some 300 Czechs are to leave shortly for their country via
Russia on repatriation. They have been in Persia since before the war and were
mostlv employed by Skoda or as railway technicians. About 150 Czechs will
remain in Tehran in the employ of Skoda.
Tehran, IQth November, 1945.