'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎637r] (1275/1386)

11
No. 10.
Mr. Thomson to Earl Granville.
(Substance received by telegraph, October 8.)
My Lord, Tehran, October 8, 1880.
I HAVE the honour to report, for your Lordship's information, that a large
body of Kurds, reported to be 15,000 strong, belonging to the various tribes settled on
both sides of the Turco-Persian frontier, headed by Abdul Kader, a son of the well-
known Turkish Chief Sheikh Obeidullah, and a Persian Chief named Hamza Agha,
have seized the town and surrounding district of Souj Boulak.
The Persian local authorities fled on the approach of the Kurds, and the latter
are reported now to have pushed on to a short distance of the town of Maragha,
situated about half-way between Souj Boulak and Tabreez, and have pillaged several
villages in the neighbourhood.
Orders have been issued by the Persian Government for troops from the Tabreez
garrison and from the adjacent provinces to be concentrated at the seat of the
disturbance, and the command of these forces has been intrusted to the Hishmet-ed-
Dowleh, Prince Hamza Mirza, who leaves the capital to-day to assume command.
The contingent under his orders, it is said, will number 12,000 men, consisting
of both regular and irregular troops, and two or three batteries of artillery.
Fahri Bey, the Turkish Ambassador here, has already communicated with the
Turkish authorities at Van, requesting that their troops may co-operate with the
Shah’s forces, so that the Kurds, when driven out of Persian territory, may be
prevented from taking refuge within the Turkish border.
I have, &c.
(Signed) RONALD F, THOMSON.
No. 11.
Mr. Thomson to Earl Granville.
(Substance received by telegraph, October 11.)
My Lord, Tehran, October 11, 1880.
THE Shah sent me a message this morning saying that lie wished to see me. I
accordingly went to the Palace, and His Majesty proceeded to speak about the Kurdish
outbreak in Azerbaijan. It had, he said, completely taken him by surprise ; he had
thought that on the western frontier of his kingdom he had a civilized neighbour
who was able to keep order in his house, and who had both the power and the will to
prevent hordes of armed ruffians from crossing the border to burn, pillage, and
massacre ; he had not expected that the subjects of the Sultan in the west would
behave like the Turkomans in the east.
He was now unprepared to meet so formidable and unexpected a movement, and
he consequently requested me to lose no time in addressing an earnest appeal to Her
Majesty’s Government to the effect that they, as one of the Mediating Powers, would
instruct Her Majesty’s Ambassador at Constantinople strongly to impress upon the
Turkish Government the urgent necessity of their co-operating with Persia to check
this Kurdish movement.
His Majesty suggested that the Porte should threaten Sheikh Obeidullah, who
is a Turkish subject, either by a display of military force or otherwise, and thus
oblige him to recall his son Abdul Kader, who is one of the leaders of the movement,
from Persian territory, and himself desist from the hostile intentions against Persia
which he now entertained.
His Majesty also thought that the Porto should take military measures on the
frontier so as to prevent the Kurds from retiring unmolested across the border when
the Persian troops attacked them. Though everything was being done to hurry up
the reinforcements to Azerbaijan, they could not possibly be on the spot for another
month, and His Majesty greatly feared that Russia would be likely to take advantage
of this delay to interfere actively, bringing forward as an excuse the safety and
interests of her numerous subjects in Azerbaijan whom the Persian Government were
unable to protect. Such interference on the part of Russia would, His Majesty
added, be equally fatal to Turkey and Persia.
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