A MUSSULMAN REPUBLIC

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 111, 4 February 1920, Page 7

A MUSSULMAN REPUBLIC

I ■ AZERBAIDJAN FRONTIER PROBLEMS. Mr. Scotland Liddell, who represented t!ic British Press in Mesopotamia and afterwards in the Baku region towards the end of the war, in a message from Baku, dated October 1-1, says:— I havo had a long interview with Mr. Djafarov, the Foreign Minister of the Azerbaidjan Republic. Mohammed Josev Djafarov is a young man of about 33, although he impresses one as being very much older than that. A native of Baku, he is a jurist, who was educated at Moscow University. He was a member of thp Russian Duma, representing part of the Caucasus, and during the Kerensky regime ho was a member of tho Caucasian Soviet. Mr. Djafarov said: "As regards the foreign policy of Azerbaidjan, I. may say very briefly that we have simply aspired to iv friendly mid peaceful solution of all contestable questions with adjoining nations. There is a characteristic contrast in tho proceedings of tho Azerbaidjan Government on the one hand, and tho Armenian Government on the other, in regard to frontier territories. Enemy agents have for a long timo been inciting the people of Karahagh to rise and fight against the Azerbaidjan authorities. In snite of those, intrigues of tho enemies of Azerbaidjan, however, the Government lias succeeded in arriving at a peaceful agreement with the Armenian population of TCarabagh, which forms the minority of tho population of this region and which occupies only the mn"ifainous pnrt of the province. "Tho result of. the. occupation of Mussulman lands bv Armenian troops and (he Armenian Administration's neglect of the most important needa of the Mussali>'"M ]>->s- soon anwarwl. At the present time tho Armenians havo been obliged to leave Nnkhitchevan, the greater part of Sharur-Daralagez, and part of the district of Erivan. As wo desire, if possible, to solve without any acute conflict tho question that is inciting tho people, our Government has at Hid nre;ent time proposed to the Armenian GovM'mnei't to establish a provisional demarcation linn between Azerbaidjan and UinnM'"n jn (i,n iwpn 0 f finding means to satisfy the local Mussulman population in a wav admissible for both nations. Tho Azerbaidjan Government is ivilling, regarding this, to accept the iroposal of Colonel Haskell, the Allied High Commissioner in Trans-Caucasia, \s to the. settlement of a neutral zone n the aforementioned regions on certain jonditions. "Both Azerbnidjan and Georgia an ikeoping outside this great civil wa: vi,j c |, i, taking placo in Russia proner We will on no account tolerato 80l shoviki here, but we aro not in <a position to take any active part in the Russian war. Like the new Renublici of the north and west of the formei Russian Empire—Finland, Luthuania, Lettlaud. Esrhonia, and Poland, we will only fisht when our enemies threaten our independence. "Meanwhile. Denikin's plans and intentions aro such as lo raise considerable apnrcherisions as to his assurance- 5 of his non-interference with the life of the. Trans-Cancasinn ■ "Republic. The handing over of the Caspian fleet to Denikin surprised us. Tt is really n threat against the capital of Azerbaidjan.'"