11:00 Greeting/Introduction (Prof. Dr. Rohdewald, Leipzig; PD Dr. Gasimov, Bonn)

11:15 Turkey’s Ambassadors to Iran in Early Republican Period (Dr. Serhan Afacan, Istanbul)

Turkey-Iran relations, which have a centuries-old historical backdrop, entered a new phase in the early 1920s with the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty of Iran in 1925. The modernizing policies implemented in these two states throughout 1920s and 1930s showed important similarities on the surface but carried significant differences at the core which affected the course of each state throughout the rest of the twentieth century. The presence of two powerful and authoritarian leaders, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey, and Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran was one of the key similarities. Although there is a growing literature on the bilateral relations during the period, this paper aims to offer a new dimension by bringing into discussion the different agencies in establishing and maintaining the relations. To do that, I will focus on Turkey’s ambassadors to Iran from 1923 until 1941 when Reza Shah abandoned the throne in favor of his son about three years after Mustafa Kemal’s death in 1938. Although Iran’s ambassadors to Turkey will also be referred as much as possible, emphasis will be put on the profiles and the activities of Turkey’s ambassador in Tehran by paying special attention to the reasons behind their selection. In the main, this paper argues that Mustafa Kemal was very careful in building good relations with Iran which led him to handpick the best suitable ambassador in every stage of the relations. The archive of the Turkish Ministery of Foreign Affairs and The National Archives of Great Britain, along with the memoires of the ambassadors under study and the newspapers, especially the Iranian ones, of the period constitute the main sources of this study.

12:00 The Aftermath of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Counter Revolution, Political Violence and the Camera (Dr. Xenia Mira Schwerda, Edinburgh)

“They break us in pieces just as a soulless, senseless, cold machine crushes a man and reduces his bones to powder. I wonder what the public opinion of Europe… thinks about these heart-breaking spectacles? Nothing! Nothing at all!” These imploring lines were written by an anonymous author from the Iranian city of Urmia after the Russian army had entered the north of Iran and massacred large groups of Iranians at the end of 1911. The “heart-breaking spectacles” included twenty-three public executions of leaders of the community in Tabriz (politicians, clergymen, teachers, journalists, philanthropists) on gallows decorated with ribbons in the colors of the Russian flag. Prior to this, telegraph wires had been cut and the events were not supposed to be reported. Yet, the executions were documented photographically with the intention that the images would not circulate beyond the Russian army. This talk focuses on the events following the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905–11), when the Russian army invaded the Iranian city of Tabriz and executed the remaining revolutionaries, and discusses the photographic documentation of the events, the circulation of the images, and their changing interpretations.

12:15–13:00 Lunch break

13:00 Observing Iran from Baku: Iranian Studies in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan (PD Dr. Zaur Gasimov, Bonn)

Azerbaijani national identity emerged in post-Persian Russian-ruled East Caucasia at the end of the nineteenth century, and was finally forged during the early Soviet period. After the fiasco of the short-lived independence period of 1918–20, Azerbaijan became Soviet. Soviet power then instrumentalized Azerbaijan for political and ideological penetration into Iran by galvanizing local separatist movements. Azerbaijani Iranology was shaped within Soviet oriental studies and put into service of Azerbaijani nation-building. Exiled Iranian communists found asylum in Baku, joined local research institutions, wrote the first Persian academic and school textbooks, and contributed to the translation of classic Persian poetry into Azerbaijani. Soviet Azerbaijani Iranologists were sent as translators to the Soviet missions to Iran and Afghanistan. After Azerbaijan regained independence in 1991, its Iranological infrastructure was represented by several departments at the National Academy of Sciences and the Iranian Studies Program at Baku State University. While the number of Persian classes at schools during the last three decades diminished, a new generation of post-Soviet Iranologists—those who studied in Iran—emerged. While Soviet Azerbaijani Iranologists never created a solid bilingual dictionary of Persian, several Persian–Azerbaijani and Azerbaijani–Persian dictionaries were published in the 2010s. Post-Soviet Azerbaijani Iranology is still trying to find its place within humanities in the transitional nation.

13:45 At the crossroads: Azerbaijani émigrés in Persia and anti-communist activities, 1920’s & 1930’s (Ass. Prof. Ali Kalirad, Tehran)

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Persia was one of the main sources of immigration to the Russian Empire, but following the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Civil War, the trend reversed and Persia became a destination for immigrants from the former Tsarist Empire. The occupation of the Caucasus republics by the Red Army in the early 1920s brought a new wave of refugees into Persia. Moscow and Tehran were at odds over the fate of these refugees, which overshadowed the fledgling relations between the two countries. The treaty of 1921 between Persia and Soviet Russia banned anti-Soviet political and military movements in the Iranian territory, as enshrined in the agreement of 1927 for joint exploitation. However, the two sides continued to differ over the activities of the opponents of the Soviet regime in Persia, especially the Caucasians. The collectivization policy and mass deportations and oppressions during the late 1920s and 1930s led to new waves of migration from the Caucasus and Central Asia, which eventually forced the Iranian authorities to create a special commission to deal with the Soviet refugees. Refugees from Azerbaijan and Armenia were distinguished by their large numbers and long-standing political, cultural, social, and economic ties with Persia. Azerbaijani activists did not play the same role as their Armenian counterparts in the Dashnaktsutyun and Hunchak organizations in the political arena of Persia during the first years of the 20th century. However, figures such as Mehmed Emin Resulzade were well known for their participation in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911). Azerbaijani immigrants were tied to the Iranian society, mostly through religion, language, traditions, and even kinship with high-ranking Iranian families. Consequently, their settlement in Persia did not pose a serious threat to the modern nation-state building project under Reza Shah (1925–1941). Nonetheless, relations between the Azerbaijani émigrés and Iranian officials and intellectuals had been fraught with serious problems from the very beginning. The emphasis of ruling Musavat party on the Turkish aspect of the Azerbaijani identity during the independence years of 1918–1920, which dissatisfied Iranians, proved a formidable obstacle to cooperation between the two sides after the establishment of the Bolshevik power in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani leaders in exile sought to exploit the situation and gain the trust of the Iranians. Their aim was to emphasize Soviet threats to Iran's independence and its territorial integrity and persuade Tehran to join anti-communist activities. In recent years, various studies have been conducted on anti-communist activities by Azerbaijani émigrés in Europe and Turkey, but their role in Persia, which along with Turkey has been the main destination of Azerbaijani immigrants, have been overlooked. This study aims to provide an overview of the situation of Azerbaijani émigrés in Persia during the 1920s and 1930s, their role in anti-communist activities and the Iranian government’s attitude toward them based on available Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani and Russian sources.

14:30 Commentary:

Transottoman Reconsiderations of Russian-Iranian-Turkish Entanglements during the Long 20th Century (Prof. Dr. Rohdewald, Leipzig)

14:45 Final discussion