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{
    "localId": "225248030",
    "label": "Central Intelligence Group, Office of Reports and Estimates Report, Number 19, Developments in the Azerbaijan Situation",
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{
    "id": "225248030",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/225248030",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Central Intelligence Group, Office of Reports and Estimates Report, Number 19, Developments in the Azerbaijan Situation",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/225248030",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
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    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/225248030",
    "naId": 225248030,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 4,
            "logicalDate": "1947-06-04",
            "month": 6,
            "year": 1947
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
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{
    "seq": 7,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875468/875468-05-007.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "Wor 1d War I to World War II\nAzerbaijan was a battleground for Russian, Turkish, and Brit-\nish armies during World War I, and during the subsequent two years suf-\nfered from famine and insecurity. With the advent of Rize Khan as army\nchief of staff in 1931, strong efforts to re-establish Iran's authority\nover the area were encouraged by the favorable terms of the 1921 Soviet-\nIranian Treaty of Friendship. Under the terms of this agreement the\nyoung Bolshevik Government renounced extraterritorial rights and all\nconcessions and holdings gained in Iran during the Czarist regime (in-\ncluding the Julfa-Tabriz Railway) with the exception of Soviet interests\nin the Caspian Sea fisheries. The USSR did, however, reserve \"the right\nto advance her troops into (Iran) for the purpose of carrying out mili-\ntary operations necessary for its defense\" should a third party threaten\nthe frontiers of Russie through this area and should Iran be unable to\nmeet such a threat after having been once called upon to do so by Russia.\nRiza Khan took advantage of Soviet preoccupation with internal\nmatters to reduce Iran's economic dependence on the USSR and to extend\nhis firm control over dissident elements in Azerbai jan. The Kurdish re-\nbellion of 1922, part of a larger movement for Kurdish autonomy origin-\nating among Turkish and Iragi Kurds, was decisively crushed. During his\nreign as Shah (1925-1941), Riza Khan endeavored to strengthen Iranian\nsolidarity by requiring the exclusive use of the Persian language in\nschools and in official correspondence, by choosing administrators large-\nly from Tehran, and by fostering an economic development program in which\nmany neutral experts, particularly German nationals, were employed.\nDuring World War II\nFollowing the opening of German-Soviet hostilities, both Great\nBritain and the USSR demended that German agents throughout Iran, includ-\ning many in Tabriz, be expelled. As 9. result of the Shah's failure to\norient Iran toward the Allied cause, it became strategically expedient\nfor the Allies to occupy the country. Soviet columns crossed into Azer-\nbaijan in late August 1941 at the same time that the British attacked\nIran in the south. Every important city in Azerbai jan was occupied\nwithin four days, and \"cease fire\" orders were immediately forthcoming\nfrom Tehran. Riza Shah, the keystone of strong central authority, was\nreplaced by his young and politically weak son, Muhammed Riza Pahlavi,\nand Azerbaijan entered a period of complete foreign occupation. The\nTripartite Treaty of January 1942, in which the USSR and Great Britain\nguaranteed Iranian sovereignty and territorial integrity and agreed to\nthe withdrawal of all foreign troops within six months after the end of\nthe war, did little to restrict Soviet activities in Iran to matters of\nmilitary necessity.\n- 4 -"
}