Tabriz & Teheran

Iran's self-proclaimed autonomous province, Azerbaijan, was quiet again after its political rebirth. But its mother state was still suffering from acute postnatal pains.

In Tabriz, capital of Azerbaijan, a purposeful, middle-aged Communist stooge from Baku, Jafar Pishevari, boldly proclaimed himself Premier of the new Azerbaijan Provincial Government.

In Teheran, capital of Iran, elderly Premier Ebrahim Hakimi and his Government churned in angry frustration. Before the Majlis (Parliament), Hakimi, himself an Azerbaijani, hotly declared his opposition to "the acts and treacherous propaganda . . . [of] a band of adventurers." Meantime, he was still trying to go to Moscow.

"Premier" Pishevari was unimpressed. The Tabriz Government, he asserted calmly, would henceforth collect its own taxes, but would continue to recognize the sovereignty of the Teheran Government. Promptly he filed the first Tabriz claim on Teheran: a demand for 30,000,000 rials (approximately $900,000 at the official rate) in salaries for his officials.

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