Alik Bakhshi
Political Collisions and the Fate of AzerbaijanMoscow does not like to remember, much less discuss, the shameful pages of Russian history, of which there are many and which were hidden from the population, for example, the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 23, 1939) on non-aggression between Nazi Germany and the USSR, after which Berlin and Moscow began to implement their aggressive plans, the first victims of which were Poland, then Finland, which Russia attacked without declaring war. On that day, November 30, 1939, Russian bombers dropped 350 bombs on civilians in Helsinki, for which Russia was expelled from the League of Nations. However, this did not stop Moscow's aggressive intentions, and the subsequent victims of expansion were all European countries that had the misfortune of being neighbors of the Russian Empire. These are, so to speak, well-known facts, but there are also little-known facts that were carefully hidden from the population. The fact is that Moscow at that time also planned to continue the aggressive policy of Tsarist Russia towards Turkey and Iran. Thus, Russia sent an ultimatum to Turkey asking for permission to place naval bases on the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, to which Turkey responded with a decisive refusal. Incidentally, during Stalin's negotiations with Hitler on Russia's accession to the Tripartite Pact (Germany, Italy, Japan), Stalin raised the issue of the Black Sea Straits, but Hitler did not want to give Turkey to Russia for slaughter under any circumstances. Instead of Turkey, Hitler suggested that Russia direct its aspirations to the South-East towards Iran and India, controlled by Great Britain. The negotiations dragged on for a long time, this circumstance, in my opinion, aroused Hitler's suspicions about Stalin's reliability as an ally, and ultimately led to Hitler's decision to attack Russia. (1)
As for the policy towards Iran, Stalin had apparently been preparing for a long time to invade this country, so to speak, to continue the expansion of Tsarist Russia, and then Hitler insisted, because oil was being shipped to England from Iran. It is interesting that Stalin was not stopped by Germany's attack on the USSR, and on August 25, 1941, despite the war with Germany that had begun, the Red Army invaded Iran from the territory of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The weak Iranian army was unable to stop the rushing wedge of 1,000 tanks, which was already 150 km from Tehran on August 29. On September 1, Shah Reza Pahlavi ordered an end to resistance and abdicated, giving way to his son Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The occupation of Iran by the Soviet Union continued until April 1946 and was explained by the Kremlin as ensuring security in the event of aggression from Turkey. Naturally, few people believed in this nonsense. Stalin wanted to include the territory of Southern Azerbaijan in the USSR and bring a puppet communist party to power in Iran, as was done later in the countries of Eastern Europe that became members of the Warsaw Pact. For this purpose, a communist party was organized in the occupied part of Iran, whose task was to establish a communist regime in the country. However, Winston Churchill, who understood Russia much better than the naive Roosevelt, who completely trusted Stalin, opposed Stalin's plans.
According to the decision of the Potsdam Conference, Soviet troops were to leave Iran by March 2, 1946, but instead, on March 3, the People's Republic of Azerbaijan was proclaimed, and on March 4, Soviet tanks moved towards Tehran.
The next day, March 5, when the crisis over Moscow's aggressive actions in Iran reaches its climax, Winston Churchill delivers his famous Fulton speech, in which he opens the eyes of the Western public to what Russia is. Here are his prophetic words:
"Today a dark shadow has fallen on the stage of post-war life, which until recently shone in the bright light of the Allied victory. No one can say what may be expected in the near future from Soviet Russia and the international Communist community which she leads, or what are the limits, if any, of her expansionist aspirations and her persistent efforts to convert the whole world to her faith." Churchill then outlines the mechanism that Moscow uses in its aggressive policy, which can be described as international terrorism: “In a number of countries throughout the world, although they are far from the Russian borders, communist fifth columns are being created, acting in a surprisingly harmonious and coordinated manner, in full accordance with the guiding instructions emanating from the communist center. The communist parties and their fifth columns in all these countries represent a huge and, alas, growing threat to Christian civilization.”
Although Churchill's Fulton speech concerns events of the distant past, it contains words that are very closely related to the actions of Putin's Russia in Ukraine and that point to the great power mentality of the Russian people:
"they admire nothing more than strength, and they respect nothing less than weakness, especially military weakness."
Let's face it, it is precisely thanks to the mentality of the Russian people that Putin is able to pursue an aggressive policy. (2,3)
Churchill's speech contains words that are directly related in time to Russia's aggressive actions against Iran and Turkey:
"Turkey and Persia are seriously alarmed by the territorial claims Moscow is making on them and the pressure it is exerting in connection with them."
The Soviet Union's violation of the Potsdam Agreement provoked a sharp protest from the United States and Great Britain, which demanded immediate fulfillment of the obligations signed by Moscow, setting a deadline by the anniversary of the end of the war, that is, by May 9, 1946, not a single Russian soldier should remain on Iranian territory. Stalin had to obey, because he was given to understand that otherwise the United States would not fail to use the atomic bomb. At that time, the Soviet Union did not yet possess the secret of creating atomic weapons, which it received from the Rosenberg couple a little later. After the withdrawal of the Red Army from Iran, the People's Republic of Azerbaijan, created in Iranian Azerbaijan, did not last even one day. Fleeing persecution by the Iranian government, the communists of South Azerbaijan, whom Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi considered a fifth column, hastily fled to Soviet Azerbaijan. In Baku, they were called Iranian democrats. All of them remained citizens of Iran for a long time, until Moscow finally lost hope of returning to South Azerbaijan. And who knows, if the political circumstances had been different and Stalin had not made concessions, then today, after the collapse of the USSR, the Turkic people of Azerbaijan would have lived in one state. (4)
It should be noted that Stalin did not abandon his manic idea of territorial claims against Turkey, which he tried to impose on the Potsdam Conference, citing the fact that the Montreux Convention on the Black Sea Straits was outdated and subject to revision. In addition, Stalin insisted on granting the USSR the right to have a naval base for joint control with Turkey over the straits in order to ensure their security, and also demanded that the USSR transfer territory in the northeast of Turkey to accommodate more than a million Armenians living abroad and dreaming of returning to Armenia. Moscow had already allocated part of Azerbaijani territory for the Armenians, now it is necessary to provide part of Turkish territory for the Armenians. Having failed to achieve success at the Potsdam Conference, the USSR in 1946 addressed Turkey with a note of brazen demands to revise the status of the Black Sea straits, which Turkey decisively rejected with the support of the United States and Great Britain. Only after Stalin's death in 1953 did Russia abandon its territorial claims against Turkey in connection with Turkey's entry into NATO.
Using the example of the people of Azerbaijan, we see how the political intentions of strong countries influence the destinies of peoples. In order not to be subject to someone's political aspirations like a leaf in the wind, it is necessary to cast aside the rivalry that constantly haunts the Turks and unite, creating a union similar to the European Union. (5,6)
1. Stalin's fatal mistake that saved the World.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/20036.html2. The nation-forming people and its Fuhrer, or Ukraine and so on down the list.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/21749.html3. Great Russian chauvinism, and Putin its Fuhrer.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/21133.html4. Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/13967.html5. One language - one homeland.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/16879.html6. The Turkic language and Azerbaijan.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/95081.html 04/07/2023