Iran at War by Kaveh Farrokh

Author:Kaveh Farrokh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Iran at War: 1500—1988
ISBN: 9781780962214
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2011-11-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

THE FIRST WORLD WAR: IRAN ON THE EDGE

The country that Ahmad Shah (1898–1930) inherited in mid-July 1909 was in dire economic and political disarray, and wholly unprepared to meet the challenges of the First World War. Iran declared her neutrality in a royal farman (edict) on November 1, 1914, but this failed to spare her from invasions by Russian, Ottoman, and Anglo-Indian troops in the north and south. Foreign operations in the north were mainly focused in Iranian Azarbaijan and Gilan with the south mainly confined to the Persian Gulf coastal areas, Shiraz and Isfahan. The Russians treated northern Iran like a protectorate, facing fierce resistance in Gilan. Fierce fighting also broke out in the south between the British and Iranian nationalists allied with the Gendarmerie. The Germans sought to exploit anti-Russian and anti-British sentiments while the Ottomans sought to expand into Iranian Azarbaijan and the Caucasus. The scope of foreign military operations and high-handed political meddling brought Iran perilously close to the edge of partition and destruction. Much of Iran’s predicament was due to the fact that it had no real operational army capable of maintaining law and order in the country and defending its borders. This left the brunt of Iran’s defense on the Melliyun nationalists, their Democrat allies and the Gendarmerie.

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