Iran Was Occupied and the Dream of 'Greater Azerbaijan' Was Born

The series of programs titled 'Faction', broadcast by Radio Farda coinciding with the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of the autonomous government in Azerbaijan, Iran, is dedicated to examining this historical event. This is the fourth episode of this series. In previous episodes, we explored how the Caucasus separated from Iran, the renaming of this region to 'Azerbaijan', and the loss of the short-lived independence of 'Azerbaijan' in the early twentieth century. We also saw how this region was managed between the two World Wars. World War II began in September 1939. However, it took two years for the flames of war to reach Iran. At the onset of the war, Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, was attempting to annex half of Poland's territory to the Soviet Union in collusion with Hitler. Some of these areas in eastern Poland, adjacent to the borders of Ukraine and Belarus, had Ukrainian or Belarusian inhabitants, and the issue of annexing these regions to the socialist republics of Ukraine and Belarus sparked a similar idea in the minds of some politicians in Azerbaijan. Thus, from the first months of World War II, while Iran declared neutrality and the Soviet Union was negotiating with Nazi Germany, special studies regarding the province of Azerbaijan in Iran were conducted in the Soviet Union. According to Jamil Hasanli, a researcher who has extensively studied the documents left by the Soviets, these studies were conducted by both Baku and Moscow and were efforts to gather a precise database about Azerbaijan in Iran. He states: 'From 1939, some actions were taken regarding Azerbaijan. For example, extensive databases were prepared about the economy, geography, inhabitants, history, and culture of Southern Azerbaijan. These sources were so detailed that, for instance, information was collected about the depth of major rivers in Azerbaijan at every kilometer of the river's length. Collecting information with such details without military plans for the future is meaningless for a country. A 245-page catalog of large, medium, and small industrial institutions in Azerbaijan, including the number of employees, production capacity, country of machinery manufacture, etc., was also prepared. Resources regarding the historical injustices of the Golestan and Turkmenchay treaties were compiled with the view that the Azerbaijani people were divided between the Tsarist government and Iran, and the issue of their unity was raised. Many Iranians were unaware of these covert Soviet actions. At the beginning of what we now know as World War II, not only was there no news of the Soviet-German battle, but at the same time as the negotiations between the two countries, according to Jamil Hasanli, there were plans for the Soviet Union to assist the Allies by sending oil from Baku to Germany. In such circumstances, the possibility of a British and French attack on Baku was raised. This new fear pushed the Soviet strategy for its borders in the western Caspian Sea towards an aggressive policy. Jamil Hasanli states: 'The Soviet Union wanted to expand its borders southward as much as possible to secure Baku, which was its vital artery. For this reason, the issue of Azerbaijan was raised more clearly. Mir Jafar Bagirov, the then leader of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, and Teymur Guliyev proposed to Moscow in letters to resolve the issue of Southern Azerbaijan using the model of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. However, France's defeat in May 1940 spared Baku from Allied bombardment. With the excuse of the potential British and French attack removed, the plans for intervention in Azerbaijan, Iran lost their justification for execution. However, the game of European war soon disrupted the equations again. The Soviet-German negotiations failed, and Hitler decided to remove the Soviet piece from the chessboard of war. With Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the neighboring country and border with Iran entered the war; in favor of the Allies. This time, the issue of Iran gained importance for Moscow's politicians from a different perspective. They, along with their new allies in London, claimed that Reza Shah, despite declaring neutrality, was not neutral at all and leaned more towards Germany and the 'Allies'; Germany, which at that time was considered the iron superpower of Europe, and many Iranians were waiting for it to eventually overthrow the Soviet Union and reach Iran's borders. However, those who awaited Germany found themselves facing the guns of the Russians and the British before they could prepare to welcome the Reich soldiers. On August 25, 1941, the Soviet Union and Great Britain invaded Iran from the north and south and within 22 days dominated the country, forcing Reza Shah, the Shah of Iran, to abdicate. This was under the pretext of German influence in Iran. On the same day, Mohammad Reza, the 22-year-old son of Reza Shah, took his father's place and became king. At this time, Iran was completely occupied by two major international powers, the Soviet Union in the north and Britain in the south. During the chaos of World War II, a war that fundamentally targeted the existence of countries like the Soviet Union and Britain, the administration of the occupied regions in Iran's north and south was not uniform, and the occupying forces managed these areas based on different methods and interpretations of concepts such as war and occupation. Abbas Javadi, a researcher from Tabriz whose family directly faced the occupation of Azerbaijan, Iran by the Soviets, describes the situation of this occupation in northwestern Iran: 'My father was in the army at that time. When the Russians attacked, due to this attack and the bombardment carried out by the Russians, my father was responsible for transferring military supplies and assets from Tabriz to Tehran. But government offices continued their work. For example, my uncle was in the judiciary, and they stayed in Tabriz, and the judiciary continued its work. That is, the military apparatus (the gendarmerie perhaps less) was disrupted, but other offices were still there.' At this time, the regions occupied by the Soviets seemed to serve no purpose other than to assist the Red Army and Soviet citizens. This is why more than anything, agricultural products and livestock from Iranian herders were sent across the border by Soviet soldiers so that this country, which was facing economic problems and food shortages at that time, could continue its war against German forces. However, for politicians in Baku, the occupation of Iran could be an opportune moment to implement their ideas regarding Azerbaijan, Iran. According to Jamil Hasanli, existing documents show that the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and its First Secretary, Mir Jafar Bagirov, decided to send special forces to Iran to execute their plan. He states that Bagirov secretly traveled to Tabriz at this time and telegraphed Moscow, requesting permission to send forces to Iran. This permission was granted. Jamil Hasanli says: 'Bagirov told those he wanted to send to Iran: 'You always said homeland, homeland. Now a suitable opportunity has arisen for the liberation of the homeland. Go and serve the homeland.' These individuals were sent to Iran in groups of 200-300, dressed in military uniforms and official documents as soldiers and officers of the Soviet army. However, their mission was political activity in Azerbaijan, Iran. It was planned that the issue of Southern Azerbaijan would be resolved by November 7 or 8, 1941, that is, the twenty-fourth anniversary of the Great Socialist Revolution. These individuals were to prepare the Turkish-speaking residents of Azerbaijan, Iran through propaganda and educational activities until the anniversary of the revolution, explaining the strengths of the Soviet system so that they too would send letters to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, reminding them that due to historical injustice, they were separated from their kin and requesting liberation from Persian and Iranian captivity and union with the motherland of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic. Thus, considering this request, Southern Azerbaijan would unite with Soviet Azerbaijan similar to the model of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. However, this plan soon faced a blockade from Moscow; a Moscow that could fall under Nazi German control at any moment. About 900 of Bagirov's agents entered Iran disguised as soldiers of the Red Army while the Germans had reached near Moscow within months, and Soviet leaders were expending all their efforts to stop Germany. The complex international politics at this time quickly turned Iran into a major highway for sending Allied aid to the Soviet Union. Simultaneously, the Soviet Union also found itself in need of countries like Britain, whose agents were monitoring the behavior of Soviet agents in cities like Tabriz and Ardabil. Jamil Hasanli describes the situation: 'The British closely monitored the activities of Soviet political personnel in Iran and suspected that the Russians were harboring ideas for Iran. They raised the issue of Iran's territorial integrity, and the Soviet Union, which was dependent on Iran's transit route for its war needs, had no choice but to accept the tripartite agreement of January 29, 1942, with Iran and Britain, under which London and Moscow committed to respect Iran's territorial integrity, sovereignty rights, and political independence and to withdraw their military forces no later than six months after the end of the war.' Thus, Moscow had no choice but to withdraw its agents from Azerbaijan, Iran. In this way, the first foreign attempts to create an ethnic crisis, undermine Iran's territorial integrity, and separate Azerbaijan, Iran quickly failed. A large group of active undercover agents from Azerbaijan was returned to the Soviet Union, and everyone waited for the war to end.