The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-28
SOVIET AGENT
WAS MURDERER
OF RHAN RH0ISKY


Khoisky. the great man of the Mos
lem Republic of Azerbaidjan, in a
moving picture theatre of Tiflis, Re-
public of Georgia, was witnessed by
a number of the American army Nof-
ficers attached to the Haskell Mis-
sion to Armenia, according to Maj.
James Ulio, who has just returned
from Transcaucasia, where he was in
charge of the transportation and
supply system of the Near East Re
lief. The murder was the work of q
Bolshevist agent who had been sent
from Baku to get rid of a man who
was feared by the Reds now in pow
er in Azerbaidjan as a possible lead
er of the Tartars to overthrow the
minority Soviet Government which
seized the reins of authority in the
oil republic on April 81, Maj. Ulio
claims. In his official capacity as
head of the railroads of Transcaucasia
for the Near East Relief, Maj. Ulio
was frequently in close touch with the
Tartar leader, as Azerbaidjan controls
the fuel supply of all the Transcau-
casian railroads
"Fatalia Khan was one of the big
men of the middle East" the Ameri-
can officer stated. His loss is a loss
of one of the elements of stability in
the Transcaucasia situation. Back
in 1917, after the breakup of the
Russian Imperial army on the Tur-
kish front, when the three Transcau-
casia states, Armenia, Georgia and
Azerbaidjan, formed a Federal gov
eminent to take over the manage
ment of affairs from the wreckage
that the departure of the Gran
Duke Nikolai Nikolaieyitch had left,
Khan Khoisky was one Of the mem
bers of the Transcaucasian committee
with the portfolio of Justice. Later,
on May &c, 1918, when Moslem
Azerbaidjan separated from Christian
Georgia and Armenia and set up a
government of it's own, FATAL Khan
Khoisky was elected first President
of the Republic of, Azerbaidjan, whose
capital was then located at Gand ia
(Elizabethpol.)
1T was thanks to FATAL Khan's
astuteness that the Tartars of Aver
baidjan always presented an united
front to the other Transcaucasian
States. while the Arm enians and the
Georgians were bitterly divided
among themselves. This was the Sc
cret of the Mohammedan strength in
Transcausia.
Khan Khoisky was not only Pres
ident of Azerbaidjan, but Minister for
Foreign Affairs, as we'll, in the early
days. Subsequently, Nicholas Ussub-
bekoff was elected President of the
Tartar Republic, but Khan Khoislky
remained Minister for Foreign At
fairs. 1t was he who conducted all
the negotiations with Ch1cherin the
Soviet Foreign Comm issar and he who
rejected every proposal of alliance be-
tween Azerbaidjan and Soviet Rus
STA with view to catching the Den
kin forces between the two hostile
&C inc let ct,
unqualified recognition of Azerbaid-
jan by the de facto government of
Russia, before the Tartars would en-
ter into any relations whatever with
the Soviets. This stand of FATAL
khan's is undoubtedly what infLam-
ed the Reds against him and what
has led to his assassination.
Khan Khoisky and Khalil Bey
khasmamedoff, another Tartar lead
err who had been exiled from Aver
baidjan since the Soviet revolution in
that country, were attending an open
air movie in the Rustavili Prospect in
Tiflis, where all the American offie-
ers were also in the habit of going in
the evening. It was after the show
when the audience was going out and
the street in front of the theatre was
crowded that man stepped out of
the crowd and in front of everyone
emptied six shots into KhanIate, Pres
1dent of the Azerbaidjan Republic
and one into his companion, vha1fl
Bey The latter was only wounded
FATAL Khan was killed instantly, be-
fore anyone could raise a hand to
stop the shooting. The assassin was
never caught, throwing his revolver
away and disappearing into the crowd
He is thought to have returned tc
Baku.
FATAL Khan was always scrupu-
lously punctilious in his dealings with
the American army officers in charge
of the Near East Relief work When
he promised fuel to run the Near
East Relief supply trains, we could
depend upon his promise, absolutely