Page 468 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

Gazelles and Lions 465

proposed to control them by making them dependent for arms and other
supplies upon the revolutionary government in Tabriz.
The Soviet attempt to detach the ‘republics’ of Azerbaijan and Mahabad
from Persia and to erect them into strategic outposts for future use was
accompanied by a determined Soviet diplomatic offensive against Turkey. In

March 1945 the Soviet government denounced the Russo-Turkish treaty of
friendship of 1925, and in the months that followed let it be known that it
would not be satisfied with anything less than the grant of military bases in the
Bosporus and Dardanelles, together with the institution of a new regime of the
straits which would amount to their being placed under Russian control. A

demand was also preferred for the cession of the provinces of Kars and
Ardahan in eastern Turkey.
The dual Soviet offensive against Turkey and Persia failed, partly but not

entirely because the Russians overplayed their hand. The Turks stood firm,
encouraged by Britain and the United States; and when in February 1947 the
British government informed the United States that it could no longer afford to
supply military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey, President Truman
announced the following month that the United States would assume the task

herself. Five years later Turkey’s accession to NATO made the question of the
straits an issue central to the defence of Western Europe, thereby checkmating
the Russians. The crisis caused by the retention of Russian troops in northern
Persia was resolved in May 1946 when the troops were withdrawn, following

remonstrances by the British and United States governments and an appeal by
the Persians to the newly created UN Security Council. Exactly why the
Russians chose to withdraw is not entirely clear, even today. The explanation
usually offered is that they were swayed both by the strength of the British and
American protests and by their desire to retain the oil concession for northern
Persia, which they had extracted from the Persian government as the price of

their leaving. It is also possible, however, that a decisive influence was exerted
upon the Russians’ calculations by the realization that their behaviour in Persia
was having adverse effects upon their diplomatic activities elsewhere. What­

ever the reason, the Russians evacuated northern Persia, and before 1946 was
out the Persian government had reasserted its authority over Azerbaijan and
ahabad. The following October, emboldened by the decision of the United
tates government earlier in the month to send a military mission to the Persian
ari^’ t^le Persians cancelled the Soviet oil concession outright.
e dissolution of the Indian empire in 1947 brought an end to Britain’s role

?S a Muslim and Oriental power. It also deprived Persia of her principal
ttress against the encroachment of Russia. However, the assumption by the
nited States, through the promulgation of the Truman Doctrine, of

f°r the military and economic support of Greece and Turkey,
old 6 extens*on this responsibility to Persia later in 1947, meant that the
system of barrier powers to restrain the southward advance of Russia still