Would be a shame if we found Commies in it.

Major Teymur Bakhtiar has adeptly documented secessionist political activists and operators in Iranian Azerbaijan and Mahabad during the transparent political campaigns preceding the failed secession referendums. High command and regional leading secessionists are made note of, their homes located and social ties observed.

A fractured force of 30,000 tribal militia seems to back the Mahabad secessionists. The stability of this alliance might be questionable. Meanwhile the Azeri secessionists maintain no significant armed presence beside about a thousand suspected armed partisans. Direct Tudeh and Soviet support is recorded in Azerbaijan.

The discoveries are followed in Tehran by the arrest of Chairman Reza Radmanesh and the other incumbent Tudeh MP. The Party headquarters are raided by the Army. A statement is made by Interior Minister Ali Dashti, proclaiming Tudeh's monetary connection to the USSR and their direct involvement in the insertion of Soviet agents into north-western referendum commissions.

In Iranian Azerbaijan, at first light after the conclusion of the referendum, Internal Intelligence raids the headquarters of the ADP and the homes of its ranking members. Jafar Pishevari along with the party leadership are promptly arrested and transported to the Intelligence compounds in Shiraz, far away from Azerbaijan.

Following the removal of party leadership, Major Bakhtiar launches a wide surgical operation. In every town and village of Azerbaijan, a total minimum of 1 per settlement and a maximum of 2 registered ADP members per 100 total inhabitants are visited by Internal Intelligence for deportation purposes. Additionally, 2 people per 100 total inhabitants, preferably with some sort of tie to the ADP if applicable, are visited. Half of the latter are intensely interviewed, half deported eastward. Major Bakhtiar aims to spread fear of connections to the ADP and of talking about having voted for secession.

In the former Mahabad Republic, messages are sent to the various tribal leaders heading the 30,000 strong tribal militia. Tribal autonomy and free retention of their armed militia is promised if the tribal leaders aid in securing their territories against Soviet infiltrators. The KDPI is a leftist strong government operator and worst of all, a republican organization - all signs that under them or their allies in Tehran, the current opposition, tribal rights will come under assault. As such, tribal leaders are promised funds, greater autonomous rights and traditional legal authority in exchange for outing KDPI members and supporters to Internal Intelligence, for the purpose of questioning about suspected Soviet ties. Here it is once again stressed that in the Soviet Union, there is no tribal autonomy anymore.

In both territories, communication is laden with the assertion that the secessionist parties and the referendum commissions were found to contain Soviet agents and run for by Soviet funds. (edit)