User:HistoryofIran/Treaty of Turkmenchay

The Treaty of Turkmenchay was signed between Qajar Iran and the Russian Empire on 28 February 1828, thus concluding the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828.

Background
Since 1502, Iran had controlled the Caucasus, which the Iranians viewed as an essential component of their country. Since the 1760s, the Russians had shown interest in the Caucasus, growing more determined to increase their involvement and influence there.

Negotations
Iran tried to retain as much land as it could in the settlement of the Treaty of Turkomanchay. In 1827/28, Abol-Qasem Qa'em-Maqam II sent the Iranian ambassador Nazar Ali Khan Afshar instructions to meet with the Russian commander and learn what the Russians' territorial goals were. Qa'em-Maqam II carefully documented Iranian-owned rivers, pastures, and villages to ensure that not even the slightest amount would end up falling into Russian control. He even consented to monetary compensation of the victorious parties in exchange for territory where Russian evacuation was not dependent on this agreement, like in Azerbaijan. The Iranian defeat had changed Qa'em-Maqam II's outlook on the Russians, as demonstrated in one of his qasidehs (odes) after 1828, where he regrets the change of Iran's fortune. He had now acknowledged that it was no longer the Iranians who were the superior force but the Russians.

Treaty content and signing
Iran agreed to pay Russia an indemnity of 20,000,000 roubles, a sizable sum for a nation with a poor economy. All prisoners of war, regardless of when they were taken, had to be released. The vast majority of Russian deserters who had joined the Iranian army and even organized their own battalion were not to be allowed to be stationed close to Russo-Iranian border.

Aftermath
Politically, the loss of the Caucasian provinces was even more devastating because it damaged the Qajar state's reputation as the guardian of the Guarded Domains of Iran. Iran was potentially saved from further loss and submission, possibly even from losing all of Azerbaijan or even becoming a Russian vassal, either due to the persistence of the Iranian negotiators with the help of the British or the Russians' desire to quickly make peace since another war with the Ottomans was likely nearing. After the war, the Qajar state would never again face Russia on an equal footing or be treated as an equal by European countries. The Iranian defeat changed the outlook of Abol-Qasem Qa'em-Maqam on the Russians, as demonstrated in one of his poems, where he regrets the change of Iran's fortune. He had now acknowledged that it was no longer the Iranians who were the superior force but the Russians.

In 1829, the distinguished Russian poet and author Alexander Griboyedov led a sizable Russian embassy to the capital Tehran to enforce the conditions of the Treaty of Turkmenchay. He ordered that the Georgian concubines who were held in the harems of the Qajars (including Asef al-Dowleh's) be released into his care. He had done this at the urging of an Armenian eunuch who was himself a prisoner from earlier Iranian expeditions into the Caucasus. Griboyedov dispatched his Armenian and Georgian assistants to deliver the Georgian concubines to the Russian embassy, relying on a clause in the Treaty of Turkmenchay that called for the trading of prisoners of war.

Such a transgression of the law and Shia religious practices was viewed as having significant symbolic significance. Asef al-Dowleh asked for the help of the local Islamic scholar Mirza Masih Tehrani, who as a result urged the citizens of the capital to rise up, rescue the concubines, who had probably now converted to Islam, and bring them back to their Muslim homes. Three protesters lost their lives in the ensuing fights with the Russian security forces. Mirza Masih Tehrani then issued a fatwa, which led to the slaughter of Griboyedov and all but one of the seventy-person personnel of the Russian embassy by an enraged crowd.

Behrooz states that "In this context, the nervous Iranian reaction was telling and shows how much attitudes toward Russia had changed in Iran." One contemporary Iranian historian states that; "When Crown Prince Abbas Mirza heard of the occurrence, he ordered all the soldiers and the nobles to put on black dress as a sign of mourning, all the bazaars to be closed for three days, and all the people to stop working." To apologize, Fath-Ali Shah dispatched a diplomatic team to Nicholas I. Khosrow Mirza commanded the high-ranking team that reached Saint Petersburg in 1829.