"Turkey complains that her Armenian subjects obtain citizenship in this country, not to identify themselves in good faith with our people, but with the intention of returning to the land of their birth and there engaging in sedition. This complaint is not wholly without foundation. A journal published in this country in the Armenian language openly counsels its readers to arm, organize, and participate in movements for the subversion of Turkish authority in the Asiatic provinces. The Ottoman Government has announced its intention to expel from its dominions Armenians who have obtained naturalization in the United States since 1868.

"The right to exclude any or all classes of aliens is an attribute of sovereignty. It is a right asserted and, to a limited extent, enforced by the United States, with the sanction of our highest court. There being no naturalization treaty between the United States and Turkey, our minister at Constantinople has been instructed that, while recognizing the right of that Government to enforce its declared policy against naturalized Armenians, he is expected to protect them from unnecessary harshness of treatment."

President Cleveland, annual message, Dec. 4, 1893, For. Rel. 1893, x.
As to the journal above referred to, see For. Rel. 1893, 712–713.

For the expressions of the Turkish Government concerning the Presi-
dent's message, see For. Rel. 1894, 728.

"In my last annual message I adverted to the claim on the part of Turkey of the right to expel, as persons undesirable and dangerous, Armenians naturalized in the United States and returning to Turkish jurisdiction. Numerous questions in this relation have arisen. While this Government acquiesces in the asserted right of expulsion it will not consent that Armenians may be imprisoned or otherwise punished for no other reason than having acquired without imperial consent American citizenship." (President Cleveland, annual message, Dec. 3, 1894, For. Rel. 1894, xv.)

"As was declared by the President, in his annual message of the 4th of December last, the right to exclude any or all classes of aliens is an attribute of sovereignty, asserted and, to a limited extent, enforced by the United States themselves with the sanction of their highest court. While the President, in the absence of a treaty of naturalization, recognized the right of the Turkish Government to enforce its policy against naturalized Armenians, he made no announcement inconsistent with the position that excluded or expelled Armenians may claim the protection of this Government as naturalized citizens. "The Turkish Government has, however, apparently not comprehended the nature of the concession made by the Government of the United States, or apprehended the extent of the duty of this Government in respect to persons whose American citizenship is thus placed beyond question.

"Ottoman subjects who voluntarily leave their native land and are duly naturalized here become clothed with full rights of citizenship,

and are entitled to the protection of this Government in Turkey against all claims of that Government originating after naturalization. And while the sovereign right of Turkey to exclude, and under proper circumstances to expel, undesirable classes of people from the imperial dominions is recognized, the United States can not and will not consent that their naturalized citizens formerly the subjects of Turkey shall be there imprisoned or otherwise punished simply because they have become invested with citizenship here without the imperial permission.

"It follows that, while such arrest and detention as may be fairly incident to the exclusion or deportation of such persons will not be objected to when directed to the single purpose of preventing their sojourn in the Ottoman Empire, the right to arrest and imprison them for other purposes is not conceded."

Mr. Gresham, Sec. of State, to Mr. Terrell, min. to Turkey, March 29, 1894,
For. Rel. 1894, 754, 755–756.

Mavroyeni Bey, Turkish minister at Washington, communicated to Mr.
Gresham, Sec. of State, April 5, 1894, a telegram from Saïd Pasha, min.
of for. affairs, reading as follows:

Please allow no doubt to remain in the mind of the Government of the
United States on the following question: The Cabinet of the United
States is under the impression that we imprison Ottoman subjects,
naturalized citizens of the United States, who return to the Empire,
because they have changed their nationality. Such, however, is not
the case, for, in the first place, such a procedure has never been fol-
lowed to this day. In the second place, the law directs that all our
subjects who have themselves naturalized abroad without complying
with the laws and regulations bearing on the question, shall be pro-
hibited from returning to Turkey, and when any of their number
return to the country of their origin we are content with expelling
them from the Ottoman territory. If, then, some few among these
latter are imprisoned, it is certainly not by reason of their naturali-
zation in the United States, but solely for some difficulty they may be
involved in with the law." (For. Rel. 1894, 772.)

See, however, the cases of the prolonged detention and final expulsion of
Mr. Arakjinjian, and of Mrs. Toprahanian and her two children, at
Alexandretta. (For. Rel. 1894, 769, 770, 771, 772–774, 775, 777.)

"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 184 of May 16, instructing me to examine and report whether Turks naturalized in other countries receive the same treatment as those who become citizens of the United States; and also inclosing an anonymous petition to the President, the most important statement in which is that unnaturalized Armenians and Armenian citizens of countries other than the United States are allowed to return to Turkey, while those naturalized in the United States are not. .

"With regard to the naturalization of Turks in foreign countries, three different systems seem to prevail, caused by the fact that Turkey still holds to the doctrine of perpetual allegiance.

"(1) In some countries, of which France is a type, a Turk is not admitted to citizenship unless he produces the evidence of the imperial sanction to his change of nationality. In these countries all conflict of laws with Turkey concerning nationality is thus avoided. "(2) In Great Britain Turks may be naturalized without having obtained the imperial consent, but they are no longer protected or considered as British subjects if they return to the Ottoman Empire. All British passports of naturalized citizens contain the following language:

"This passport is granted with the qualification that the bearer shall not, when within the limits of the foreign state of which he was a subject previously to obtaining his certificate of naturalization, be deemed a British subject, unless he has ceased to be a subject of that state in pursuance of the laws thereof, or in pursuance of a treaty to that effect."

"Here, also, no conflict of laws arises between Turkey and Great Britain.

"(3) The Government of the United States would seem to be the only one which admits Turks to citizenship without their having obtained the imperial sanction, and in addition claims them as citizens in Turkey as well as in all other countries. Thus there is a conflict of laws between America and Turkey over all Turks naturalized in the United States without imperial consent who return to the Ottoman Empire.

"The statement that unnaturalized Armenians and Armenian citizens of countries other than the United States are allowed to return' is probably true, for the former have, of course, never ceased to be Turks, and the latter become Turks again as soon as they return, as they have never been given up by Turkey and are now no longer claimed by the country which naturalized them. Hence, whatever treatment they might receive when they returned to Turkey would not be made the subject of an official communication by a foreign power claiming them as citizens.”

Mr. Riddle, chargé at Constantinople, to Mr. Gresham, Sec. of State,
June 29, 1894, For. Rel. 1894, 762.

"You inclose a memorandum of an interview which you had, on August 7, with the grand vizier and minister for foreign affairs on the general subject of expatriation of Turkish subjects, from which it appears that Turkey claims the right to punish, by expulsion or exclusion from the Ottoman Empire, any of its natives who were naturalized by another Government without the Sultan's consent, and that the naturalization of an Ottoman subject, no matter of what race, is regarded as an offense in itself for which the Porte claims the right to punish him.

"This Government, while abundantly showing its disposition to respect the sovereign rights of Turkey in regard to the exclusion or expulsion of objectionable aliens, as aliens, has repeatedly made its position known touching any possible claim of Turkey to punish its former subjects on the ground of their having embraced American citizenship under the due operation of our laws. Such a pretension will not be acquiesced in, and you will earnestly contest it should it be seriously put forward."

Mr. Gresham, Sec. of State, to Mr. Terrell, min. to Turkey, Aug. 30, 1894,
For. Rel. 1894, 738. The memorandum referred to was as follows:
"In an interview with the grand vizier on the 7th instant he claimed
for Turkey the right to punish, by expulsion or exclusion from the
Ottoman Empire, any of its natives who, after being naturalized by
another Government without the Sultan's consent, returned or at-
tempted to return. He recognized the verbal agreement formerly
made with me, which limits his powers over such parties to expul-
sion or exclusion, but claimed the right to inflict this punishment
for the offense of being naturalized without the consent of the Sul-
tan. He stated that Greeks naturalized without such consent, and
returning would be treated with more indulgence than native Arine-
nians thus naturalized, so long as that race of men abstained from
sedition." (Id. 737.)

Mr. Terrell, in another memorandum, relating to an interview on the same
day with Saïd Pasha, minister of foreign affairs, reported the latter to
have said: "It is impossible for us ever to agree that an Otto-
man subject can transfer his allegiance unless the Sultan permits
it, and it is also impossible that we can ever agree to your con-
struction of Article IV. Once a clerk of our Government embezzled
50,000 piasters. We arrested him, ignorant that your country had
naturalized him. Your consul claimed the right to try him;
could not consent, and the thief went unpunished." (Id. 736, 737.)
For the refusal to present a claim of Krikor Manassian for $25,000 for
his expulsion, see Mr. Hill, Assist. Sec. of State, to Mr. Bell, Dec.
7, 1898, 233 MS. Dom. Let. 102.

we

But where it was alleged that when a person was expelled his baggage, money, and other effects were taken from him, it was stated that if the facts were found to be as stated a demand would be made for the return of the property. (Mr. Adee, Act. Sec. of State, to Mr. Eggleston, Oct. 20, 1900, 248 MS. Dom. Let. 454.)

"The published correspondence in the volumes of the Foreign Relations for the past two years, together with the statements made by the President in recent annual messages, show that the Turkish Government claims the right to exclude from the Ottoman territories, or to deport in case they be found therein, naturalized citizens of the United States of Armenian birth who have become such naturalized citizens without imperial consent since the year 1869. The right is claimed in exercise of a prerogative of sovereignty as an executive measure in regard to aliens whose presence in the Empire may be deemed prejudicial to the public interest. Its enforcement in regard

to such persons has not been opposed, nor has remonstrance been made save in the case of arrest or punitive proceedings against the parties on the ground of their having become citizens of the United States without imperial permission. United States passports held by persons so situated are recognized by the Turkish authorities as evidence of the fact of naturalization and citizenship, but the recognition so accorded does not prejudice the exercise of the sovereign right of exclusion or expulsion for the causes stated."

Report of Mr. Olney, Sec. of State, to the President, Jan. 22, 1896, S.
Doc. 83,54 Cong. 1 sess.; For. Rel. 1895, II. 1471.

Mr. Terrell, minister to Turkey, to Mr. Olney, Secretary of State, August
5, 1896, reported upon the imprisonment at Aleppo of certain natural-
ized citizens of the United States whose release he had demanded.
Referring to an interview which he had had on the subject with the
Turkish Government, he said: "The interview resulted in an assur-
ance that the matter will be brought at once, without the usual delay,
to the attention of the Sultan, and my demand for compliance with
the surrender of the men in accordance with the modus vivendi
agreed upon by him personally with me. That modus vivendi limits

the right to expel undesirable persons to those who have been naturalized since 1869 without the Sultan's consent and prohibits unnecessary imprisonment." (For. Rel. 1896, 914.)

It appears that some or all of the persons imprisoned were charged with participation in revolt, and that the Turkish authorities thought that their simple expulsion would not answer the requirements of the situation. (For. Rel. 1896, 915.)

In a subsequent despatch, of August 19, 1896, Mr. Terrell said: "The Sultan and Porte, under three successive administrations, have recognized our modus vivendi, on making which the Sultan grasped my hand over two years ago. Under it, Mooradian, Krikor Arakelian, and Melcoun Guedjian (besides others) were surrendered to me." (For. Rel. 1896, 918.)

September 23, 1896, Mr. Terrell reported that the men imprisoned were arrested in armed resistance to the Government, and that they surrendered on the promise that they would be sent out of the country. Their situation remained unchanged, and "in the present condition of unrest and suspicion but little can be hoped for beyond saving their lives." (For. Rel. 1896, 922.)

Orders were subsequently given by the grand vizier to alleviate the condition of three of the persons who were sick.

December 20, 1896, Mr. Terrell sent to Mr. Olney the following telegram: "At my demand Diradourian, convicted at Trebizond of sedition, has been surrendered to me under orders of expulsion. The release and expulsion of the nine revolutionists in prison at Aleppo promised me by the grand vizier. Such people, unless helped to reach Christian ports, must return to prison. Bible House people refuse to advance relief funds from America to such people in distress who have become American citizens. I will, as heretofore, pay their ship passage, but I hope in future the Government will aid me." (For. Rel. 1896, 924.)