It authorizes the Sultan, and under certain specified circumstances the
chief military commanders, to declare any clearly-defined locality to be
in a state of siege, and determines the effect of such a declaration. By
comparison with the ordinary rules of war observed by belligerent
powers, it will probably be found little different. Possibly it may be
an improvement upon them in this, that it attempts to prescribe the
extraordinary powers granted in the absence of civil law and does not
give unlimited discretion to military chiefs, so liable to be abused
when they are clothed with the absolute authority of martial law. The
act dates, it will be observed, several days subsequent to the
declaration of the present war, and may be regarded as one of the
measures adopted by the Ottoman Government in consequence of it.
At the date of the consul-general’s note the law had in no instance been
put in force. To-day, however, as will be seen by a report from the
dragoman, the capital is proclaimed to be in a state of siege, and is
likely so to remain until the close of the war.
No notice of this action has yet been given to the foreign missions, and
nothing has occurred to present any question for practical decision.
The points made by the consul-general in his note are submitted to the
consideration of the Department of State for any instructions which it
may be thought proper to give.
[Inclosure 1 with No.
155.]
Mr. Schuyler to
Mr. Maynard.
Consulate General of the United States,
Constantinople, May 19, 1877.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your dispatch No. 153, M. C, and to transmit to you
herewith a translation of the law on the state of siege, recently
passed by the Ottoman Parliament. I desire particularly to call your
attention to articles 8, 10, and 13.
The proper interpretation of this law becomes of great importance, as
it is not impossible that during the present war a state of siege
may be proclaimed in Constantinople and other cities of the empire
where there is a foreign population, and an attempt may be made to
apply its provisions to foreigners.
In view therefore of the proper protection of the rights of citizens
of the United States in Turkey, I have the honor to request your
opinion as to how far the law on the state of siege would, under the
plea of military necessity, be allowed to overrule article 4, of the
treaty of 1830, and also to ask instructions as to what action
should be taken in case of an attempt to apply articles 8, 10, and
13, of this law to citizens of the United States.
I am, &c.,
EUGENE SCHUYLER,
Consul-General.
[Inclosure 2 with No.
155.]
law on the state of siege.
Chapter I.—Circumstances determining the proclamation of the state of
siege.
Article 1. Places of war and other
localities may be placed in a state of siege in case of revolt or of
war, and in case of the discovery of facts or indices of a nature to
make troubles foreseen in a point of the territory, and to threaten
the external or internal security of the empire.
Chapter II.—The mode of proclaiming a state of siege.
Art. 2. His Majesty the Sultan has the
exclusive power of proclaiming, upon the decision and demand of the
council of ministers, the state of siege in any point of the
territory of the empire.
Art. 3. The state of siege, either in
frontier localities or in the interior of the empire, may be
proclaimed after deliberation with the civil authorities, by the
superior commandants of the places of war of the locality, on
condition that the fact shall be immediately brought to the
knowledge of the Sublime Porte, so as to demand the sanction of His
Majesty the Sultan.
Art. 4. The proclamation of the state of
siege on any point of the territory shall be brought to the
knowledge of the Parliament in the shortest delay possible. But if
this proclamation takes place when Parliament is not in session, it
shall be informed of it as soon as it shall be convoked.
Art. 5. The limits of the zone, including
the city district, arrondissement, or province proclaimed in state
of siege, shall be minutely indicated and enumerated in the notice
of such proclamation.
Chapter III.—The mode of administration of the localities
placed in a state of siege.
Art. 6. From the proclamation of the state
of siege and during its duration, the dispositions of the
constitution and of the other civil laws remain temporarily
suspended.
Art. 7. The military authorities are
charged with the attributes and powers with which the civil
authorities are invested, as concerns the police and public
order.
[Page 582]
Art. 8. Those accused of any offense or
crime against the external security of the State, shall be judged by
a council of war, without regard to the quality arid to the dignity
of the accused.
Art. 9. Persons who form malevolent designs
against the functionaries of the government in the exercise of their
functions are justiciable by councils of War, if their acts relate
to the circumstances which have caused the state of siege.
Art. 10. The military authority is
authorized, 1st, to make domiciliary visits day or night; 2d, to
arrest suspected persons and those having bad precedents, and to
expel those who have not a fixed domicile in the localities placed
in the state of siege; 3d, to seize the arms and munitions of war in
the hands of the inhabitants; 4th, immediately to suspend journals
which, by their publications, seek to excite the public mind.
Art. 11. The civil authorities can, as
hitherto, exercise some of the attributes and duties mentioned in
articles 8, 9, 10, in cases where, on the demand of the ministry,
they shall be authorized by an imperial iradé
Art. 12. Ordinary crimes and offenses are
justiciable by the regular tribunals.
Art. 13. Councils of war may also take
cognizance of ordinary offenses and crimes with a view to public
safety.
Art. 14. The councils of war shall be
exclusively charged with the attributes and powers of the ordinary
correctional tribunals; consequently these councils have no power of
intervening in any affair within the sphere of the ordinary
tribunals in localities outside of the limits of the territory
proclaimed in a state of siege, nor even in those which, without
being in the sphere of those tribunals, do not take place in the
territory placed in a state of siege. Neither can they continue the
procedure of affairs which the ordinary tribunals had already begun
before the proclamation of martial law.
Art. 15. If the offenses and crimes
referred to in article 8 of this law shall have been committed
before the proclamation of the state of siege, and the accused have
not yet been judged, they shall be judged by councils of war.
Art. 16. All secret committees, although
they may have been formed before the proclamation of the state of
siege, shall be judged by councils of War.
Art. 17. Individuals who may be found to
have participated in the acts or facts which led to the proclamation
of the state of siege, shall be judged by councils of war, even
though they may not be domiciled in the locality under martial
law.
Art. 18. Inhabitants of localities
proclaimed in a state of siege shall continue to enjoy, as
heretofore, the rights assured to them by the constitution and the
civil laws in so far as they are not provisionally suspended by the
present law.
Chapter IV.—The suppression of the state of siege.
Art. 19. On the decision and demand of the
council of ministers an imperial iradé shall
raise the state of siege in those localities where there shall ho
longer be any necessity of proclaiming it.
Art. 20. The superior commandant of a place
of war, and other localities placed in a state of siege, has the
power of ending it on condition of immediately giving notice to the
Sublime Porte and obtaining the necessary imperial decree.
Art. 21. The end of the state of siege
shall be immediately brought to the knowledge of the Parliament. If
the suppression of the state of siege take place when Parliament is
not in session, notice shall be given of it at its first
meeting.
Art. 22. Immediately after the suspension
of the state of siege the councils of War shall no longer have the
right of making inquiries for the discovery and arrest of persons
accused of offenses and crimes committed during the state of siege.
Affairs of this kind return to the ordinary tribunals, but the
officer who, during the state of siege, shall have filled the
functions of procurator-general with the councils of war shall have
the right of performing the same duties in the ordinary
tribunals.
Passed the 16th Rebi-ul-akhir
1294 (8/20, April, 1877).
