that the Turkish Government had always considered the Toprahanians as Turkish subjects, it would seem that the Sultan's ministers at the Porte are disposed to claim as Turks those naturalized Armenians whom it is their wish to detain, and to pass over in silence the American nationality of those whom they are willing to allow to depart from the Ottoman Empire. I have, etc., J. W. RIDDLE, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim. No. 177.] Mr. Uhl to Mr. Riddle. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I append a copy of telegrams relative to the passport of Adam Aivazian and his right to claim such protection as the United States can give to citizens who were former subjects of Turkey and who have returned to Ottoman jurisdiction. As Mr. Terrell appears to have pledged himself to take into consideration Aivazian's acts in Turkey in determining whether he is entitled to protection, it is proper that the legation should be afforded full opportunity to ascertain the nature of the acts imputed to this man. I inclose a copy of Mr. Aivazian's application for a passport.1 Referring you to instruction No. 162 of the 29th ultimo, more specifically setting forth the ground upon which your legation should be afforded all proper facilities for arriving at the facts in Aivazian's case, I am, etc., EDWIN F. UHL, Acting Secretary. No. 237.] Mr. Riddle to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Constantinople, April 26, 1894. (Received May 10.) SIR: Referring to your instruction No. 162, of March 29, and to the telegrams copied in my No. 231, of the 20th instant, and No. 233, of the 21st instant, I have the honor to report that I have had a conversation with the grand vizier, in which I pressed for an opportunity to inquire into the status of Adam Aivazian, in order to ascertain, by a personal interview with Mr. Aivazian, whether, during his four years' stay in Turkey, he has voluntarily so far resumed his original status as to absolve the United States Government from the duty of protecting him. The grand vizier manifested great unwillingness to allow a foreigner to go to Yozgad, in view of the present disturbed condition of that town; but he promised to have Aivazian brought to Constantinople, and said that the man would be here within a week. On his arrival here I shall endeavor to see him, and will report the result of my investigation. I have, etc., J. W. RIDDle. 1 Not printed. No. 243.] Mr. Riddle to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Constantinople, May 11, 1894. (Received May 26.) SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your instructions No. 173, of April 17, and No. 174, of April 18. There seems to exist a misapprehension as to the source of the orders for Mrs. Toprahanian's expulsion, as the instruction alludes to the "action of the caimacam of Alexandretta, who, in the face of the orders from Constantinople to permit these unfortunate persons to depart, * commanded their expulsion within one hour's time." The minister of foreign affairs, however, in the conversation which I have reported in my No. 234 of April 21, did not attempt to shift the responsibility for the harsh action upon distant subordinates, as he freely admitted that the order for expulsion emanated from Constantinople, his only apology being that at that inopportune time the Sultan was so greatly worked up over Armenian outbreaks that it was impossible for the Porte to take the responsibility of ordering gentler I have seen Aivazian. Has been sentenced to ten years for common crime. Says he returned to marry and remained at the request of wife. Has bought a dwelling house near Yozgad and engaged in grain and cattle trade, but says he intended to return to California, where he still owns two town lots, provided he could first close out his affairs in Turkey. I have reserved the right to make claim in future. Full report in my dispatch. RIDDLE. No. 245.] Mr. Riddle to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Constantinople, May 21, 1894. (Received June 7.) SIR: I append copy of a telegram sent you from this legation relative to the case of Adam Aivazian, who is now temporarily confined in a jail in Stamboul. In my conversation with Aivazian I endeavored to find out what business or property interests he had left behind him in America on his departure for Turkey in May, 1890, and what new interests he had acquired in Turkey since his return. He said that before leaving America he had sold the vineyards which he had owned and cultivated in California, but that he was still owner of two town lots in Fresno; that he had returned to Turkey to be married, and after his marriage, which took place in August, 1890, as his wife was unwilling to be separated from her family, he lingered without having at that time any definite plan. He stated that after his marriage he bought a dwelling house in the village of Eilendje, near Yozgad, and had for the past four years been engaged in the grain and cattle trade and in lending money on farmers' crops. He declared that he had made up his mind to return to California this year with his family, provided he could first satisfactorily wind up his business in Turkey; and said that last summer he had requested a missionary who was going to Constantinople to take his passport to the legation to have it renewed for traveling purposes. This latter statement is substantiated by Mr. Fowle, an American missionary of Cæsarea, at present in Constantinople, who tells me that Aivazian made such a request of him in the summer of 1893, but on his asking, "When are you going to America?" Aivazian replied, “Who knows? Perhaps next year;" and that subsequently Mr. Terrell declined to issue a new passport until Aivazian had a definite intention to start for America. Before leaving Aivazian I asked him what crime he was charged with and what sentence he had received, but he replied that he was in complete ignorance as to both. In a subsequent visit to the Porte I was informed by the grand vizier that Aivazian had been found guilty of the charge of aiding in the escape of a condemned murderer, and that he had been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, with transportation; that the evidence on both sides had been carefully weighed and there was no doubt of the prisoner's guilt. To this I replied that the immediate question at issue between us was not whether Aivazian was innocent or guilty, but whether he was an American or a Turk; that I was about to report all the facts in the case to my Government for instructions, and that in the meanwhile I reserved the right to make a claim in the future. Aivazian does not seem to have been at any time mixed up in revolutionary movements, and the grand vizier told me that no charges of sedition had ever been brought against him by the Ottoman Government. I have, etc. J. W. RIDDLE. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, Washington, August 15, 1894. MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: As it is to be presumed that your legation at Constantinople has transmitted some information to your excellency with regard to the case of Atam Aivazian, I think proper also to give you, in my turn, some details on the same subject which have just been communicated to me by the Sublime Porte, and which will serve, I think, to remove all difficulties. Atam Aivazian was convicted of having been one of those who abetted, with arms in their hands, the escape of the Armenian brigand who murdered Simon Kahia. Aivazian was sentenced by a court-martial, for that offense, to ten years' imprisonment in a fortified inclosure. This person, who was born in the village of Eilendje, in the caza of Yozgad, of parents who were Ottoman subjects, has never ceased legally to belong to his original nationality. He came to America, it is true, for the purpose of engaging in business, and remained here about eight years, at the expiration of which time he returned to Turkey with an American passport, which he had procured a few days before his departure from the United States. Since that time, however, he has again settled in his native country, where he has always regularly paid the tax for exemption from military service and the temettu tax, and has always been considered and treated as an Ottoman subject. The fact, moreover, that no imperial iradé has ever authorized him to renounce his original nationality, is superabundant evidence that he is still a subject of Turkey. Your excellency will bear in mind, moreover, what Mr. Terrell himself so justly remarked in his report to the Department of State of September 29, 1893, and what I myself have several times repeated, namely, that Armenians almost always become naturalized as American citizens only a few days before their final departure from the United States. Mr. Terrell wrote, at the date aforesaid, as follows: The European emigrant in the United States generally naturalizes in good faith; the Asiatic very rarely does. I am in a position to know that it is the rule rather than the exception that the Armenian returns soon after he is naturalized, and comes back with the intention of remaining. Thus, and this appears from a conscientious examination of several cases, the persons in question seek to become naturalized as American citizens, not with a view to becoming, frankly and honestly, part of the great American family, but solely with a subversive intent, and for the purpose of introducing foreign influence among us. Mr. Terrell's words are therefore in every respect applicable to Aivazian. Yet, even if they were not, the foregoing considerations would be sufficient, I trust, to prove to your excellency the justice of the allegations made by the Ottoman Government in the present case. I consequently beg you to instruct the United States legation at Constantinople to acknowledge that Aivazian, who has regularly paid certain taxes since his return to Turkey, can not be considered, for the reasons above stated, otherwise than as an Ottoman subject. Be pleased to accept, etc., Mr. Gresham to Mr. Terrell. MAVROYENI. No. 221.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I inclose herewith, for your information, a copy of a note from the Turkish minister, in which, reviewing the case of Adam Aivazian, he asks that, for reasons stated, you be instructed to consider Aivazian an Ottoman subject. Mavroyeni Bey has been informed that on July 2 last (instruction No. 195) you were directed to investigate this case, and, should Aivazian's conservation of the rights of American citizenship not be established, to inform the Turkish minister for foreign affairs that this Government would not accord to him the privileges and protection it cheerfully accords to both its native and naturalized citizens. I am, etc., W. Q. GRESHAM. Mr. Terrell to Mr. Gresham. [Telegram.] CONSTANTINOPLE, September 8, 1894. Adam Aivazian has been pardoned and discharged. Seferiades' is not under arrest, but is absent from Smyrna. TERRELL. NON-EXCHANGE OF RATIFICATIONS OF NATURALIZATION TREATY OF 1875. Mr. Gresham to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: My recent absence from this capital has deferred due acknowledgment of your note of the 22d ultimo, in which you refer to my remark in a recent interview that while at Constantinople in the summer of 1890 you had told the members of the United States legation in Turkey "that the modifications introduced by the United States Senate to our convention on naturalization were not such as to justify their approval by the Turkish Government." You add that, while this much is true, the legation omitted to state that your action was not original with yourself, but in pursuance of opinions conveyed to you by the first secretary of the Sultan. If I am to regard your note as an authoritative communication of the views of His Imperial Majesty regarding the exchange of ratifications of the long deferred naturalization treaty of 1875, permit me to state that this is the first specific intimation this Government has had during nearly five years of the intentions of His Imperial Majesty in this regard. By the phrase "modifications introduced by the Senate of the United States to our convention on naturalization," I presume you refer to the condition stated in the Senate resolution of February 28, 1889, whereby that coördinate branch of the treaty-making power advised the exchange of the ratifications in view of the assent of the Imperial Government, which was unreservedly given by the Porte on January 15, 1889, after fourteen years had elapsed since the original ratification and exchange. The Senate condition was, after ample consideration, acquiesced in by the Porte without reserve, and Mr. Hirsch was so advised in formal interviews with their excellencies the grand vizier and the minister for foreign affairs on April 19, 1890, being informed that the imperial iradé was alone awaited to enable the completion of the convention by exchange. Subsequently, in June, 1891, and in response to Mr. Hirsch's request for a reply to his note touching the deferred iradé, he learned that the protracted delay in obtaining His Imperial Majesty's sanction was due to the necessity of first obtaining information from the representatives of Turkey at certain European posts. This is the latest Turkish official communication on the subject, and nothing is found to intimate that the Porte's formal acceptance of the Senate conditions of February 28, 1889, has been since withdrawn. 1See page 731. |