Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎373v] (746/749)

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to have joined the rebel army. Regarding the alleged atrocities committed by the
garrison before its surrender, His Majesty's Acting Consul-General reports
that on the 15th December a column of gendarmes, supported by light tanks, drove
a party of armed Democrats from the village of Dedhar Baksh situated about
1 mile from Rezaieh. From the evidence of the Chaldean inhabitants of the
village it appears that the Democrats suffered no casualties and that no villager
opened fire on the Persian column. The Persian commander maintains that he
was fired upon and that he opened fire in defence. Nine villagers were killed and
ten wounded. The light tank is said by the Russians and Chaldeans to have
driven over the bodies of those killed. The Soviet Vice-Consul later visited the
scene and photographed the bodies. The Russian press will make the most of
this affair.
8 . His Majesty's Acting Consul-General has also visited Maragheh, where
all is quiet with the Democrats in control. The Anglq-Iranian Oil Company’s
manager whose murder was reported in the last Intelligence Summary appears
to have been killed on account of his being a landowning capitalist and not because
of his association with the company.
9. In general Azerbaijan is quiet with Government officers functioning
under Democrat control and police, aided by Democrat volunteers, maintaining
strict order.
10. A recruiting drive for the “Azerbaijan People’s Army'’ opened in
Tabriz on the 19th December. Some fifty horsemen and 2,000 infantry volunteers
were brought into the town. The section commanders carried Tommy guns and
the rank and file rifles. A few light machine guns were also seen.
11. General Hasan Muqaddam, a former Governor-General of Azerbaijan,
has left for Tabriz by Soviet plane. He has vast estates between Maragheh and
Miandoab. He is reported to have been offered a post in the Azerbaijan National
Government. He is a brother-in-law of Kabiri, the Azerbaijan Government
Minister of Posts and Telegraphs and Roads. He is clever, able and unscrupulous.
12. Financial difficulties may cause the Azerbaijan Government to declare
its complete independence. It has accused the Central Government of attempting
to starve it by cutting off funds and strangling trade. The National Bank has
ceased payment. There are two small private banks which are being taken over
by the National Government. The Perso-Soviet Bank has never influenced trade.
The Imperial Bank of Iran is still functioning. No purchaser for the 100 tons
of Persian Government sugar has yet come forward. The National Government
has demanded 30 million rials from the Central Government for the payment of
officials’ salaries for the next six months.
13. Another source reports that three types are distinguishable among the
Democrats’ armed forces, viz. :—
(a) Officers and soldiers of the Red army in civilian clothes, dressed in dark
blue coat and “plus fours’’ tucked into the ordinary short black
leather Russian boot. They are armed with light machine guns and
grenades.
(b) Caucasians (“ Muhajirs ”) imported into Azerbaijan by the Russians.
They are clad in leather coats and fur hats and armed with rifles and
machine pistols of Persian arsenal manufacture.
(c) The native Azerbaijani armed variously with iron-shod sticks and Brno
rifles of Persian arsenal manufacture.
14. Mr. Harold Minor, chief of the Eastern Department in the American
State Department and a former secretary in the American Embassy in Tehran,
who came to Tehran a fortnight ago to study events in Azerbaijan, has not been
able to proceed to Tabriz as the Russian authorities have refused to give him a
pass. Six American and British journalists have likewise been prevented from
entering an area where Russia “ is in no way interfering in internal affairs.’’
15. Some short personality notes on the members of the Azerbaijan National
Government are given in Appendix A to this Summary.
Khorasan.
16. A consular report states that Muntasir, brother of Saulat, is organising
an anti-Government gang near Turbat-i-Sheikh Jam in order to revenge his
brother’s death. He is receiving Tudeh support. The same report states that the
Bicharanlu Kurds near Shirevan and Quchan are armed and in sympathy with
the Tudeh party. It will be recalled that Saulat-us-Saltaneh, a Hazara chief,
rebelled against the Persian Government in January 1942 and was killed while
attempting to escape from a gendarmerie post in the autumn of 1943.