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Chapter 15
Dark days in the history of Urmu
We did discuss the events of Urmu right up to the November. Russian solders were harassing local Azeris. Armenians and Assyrians with the full support of Russian solders were committing all sorts of atrocities against Azeris and nobody dared to confront them. They were becoming more and more violent day by day. There was almost no week without a serious incident resulting in death of Azeri citizens. Unpleasant stories were being heard from every corner of Urmu.
Armenians endless atrocities was not confined to the city itself and some militias who had come from Caucasus, with the help of Assyrians were rubbing people at gun point in the villages and roads leading to the city. A group of Qajar soldiers of central government along with the governor of Urmu were deployed to the area to quell them but in a gun battle with Armenian bandits Abdullah Aga head of central government soldiers wounded and died before reaching the city.
In Mergevar a village by the Ottoman border death of two Russian Cossacks triggered Russians attack on the village. Russian army burnt all houses and killed most of the men, and took women and children to Urmu and released them on the streets. In shalora village they found one Russian soldier dead and that was enough for Russian army to set the village alight, and kill it's entire inhabitants. Ottoman Armenian along with Ottoman Assyrians who had taken refuge in southern Azerbaijan and Azeris had given them shelter in different villages declared themselves the head of the village and became god in their fiefdom.
Merchants by selling their lands and buying merchandises from Tebriz have managed to revive Urmu's bazaar, which had been looted and burnt by Russians a few months earlier. Once again Russian soldiers were looking for an excuse to loot bazaar. This time their patience run out and they simply poured into Bazaar and started shooting with no reason . Ba
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zaaris shut their shops and run for their lives then Russian soldiers helped themselves and looted every single shop.
Some Russian soldiers whom have been ordered to withdraw to their bases in Caucasus had redundant local currency on them. They wanted to exchange them to Russian Manat. They were demanding the rate of one Manat for 11 Qajar Shahi. This unrealistic rate of exchange was set by Russians to make the most out of the money they had made by looting and killing innocent civilians. Besides the total sume of cash needed was about 50,000 Manat. There was not enough Russian currency in the market. Russian knew that they would get far less than what they were demanding, in Caucuses. To put pressure on the people they threatened to loot the city. The situation was so desperate that even some Russian commanders mediated in the dispute. Finally the governor of the city purchased Manat at the rate of 17 Shahi and changed soldiers' money. Governor of the city had to tax people to pay for the loss.
Governors one after another were being appointed and removed without being able to resolve the problems. Governor of Urmu was answarable to governer general of Tebriz. Governor general was aware of atrocities in Urmu ,but was lenient towards the perpetrators. His inaction was one of the strange facts of these incidents. At that time people needed a leader to help them and arm them against the perpetrators of this atrocities. Unfortunately no such person existed in the government. Clerics who were claiming to be Imams of the city, heads of communities and wealthy landlords of the city and even those who were claiming to be democrat did not come to the help of these very unfortunate people.
Urmu branch of Democrat Party was divided in how to deal with the problem. Aga Reza Hassanzade left for Tebriz in order to unite the party members who were divided into two camp and were fighting against each other. In December Ajlalulmolk was appointed as the
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