Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham.
Washington, August 20, 1893. (Received August 23.)
Mr. Secretary of State: I desire to draw your excellency’s friendly attention to the following considerations which, I am certain, will meet your approval:
Everybody knows that the greater part of the Armenians who take refuge in the United States have for their object to remain therein a short time in order to obtain American nationality and thereupon return to Turkey, to the end of there engaging in seditious acts against the public order and tranquillity of the Empire.
Assured of this fact, the Government of the United States has from the beginning, I must admit, been desirous of strictly conforming to the principles of the Monroe doctrine, which it so happily inaugurated, and, therefore, I have no doubt that your excellency will be pleased to share my view that the case of the Armenians in question would naturally give rise in the Department of State to a situation which would be incompatible with that doctrine from the moment that these agitators are authorized to become American citizens and to sojourn in the territory of the United States.
In this state of things, however, and inspired solely by a just sentiment of legitimate defense which every independent state has the right and the duty to entertain, the Imperial Government would, in its turn, find itself under the imperious necessity of refusing the return to Turkey of those Armenians who should claim to have changed their original nationality, even in the event of the American authorities having granted them passports to visit the Empire.
I am persuaded that, thanks to the well-known spirit of impartiality of your excellency and your profound knowledge of the conditions which may impose upon any Government the defense of its legitimate authority, you will be pleased to recognize the justice and good foundation of the considerations which I have had the honor to set forth in all frankness and with an absolute conviction.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,