Mr. Terrell to Mr.
Gresham.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople
,
February 1,
1894
. (Received Feb. 16.)
No. 173.]
Sir: I inclose a copy of my note to the Porte
dated December 29, 1893, regarding the imprisonment at Yozgad of Atam
Aivazian, in which I proposed to send a representative of the United
States to Yozgad, and protested against the continued imprisonment of
the man without trial.
Please find also inclosed a copy of the Porte’s answer to that note,
written a month after its receipt, in which the man’s claim of American
citizenship is admitted to have been made by him.
I inclose also my note to the Porte of yesterday (January 31), in which I
stated that I had solicited a letter and teskeré, or traveling permit,
for my secretary of legation to go to Yozgad and report to me regarding
his right to my protection, and that finally, in obedience tp a manifest
duty, I had reported the facts to you for instructions.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
173.]
Mr. Terrell to
the Sublime Porte.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople
,
December 29, 1893
.
His Excellency Saїd Pacha was informed by the minister of the United
States that Atam Aivazian, a naturalized American citizen, had for
three months been confined at Yozgad in prison. This legation will
be at all times ready to send a representative of the United States
to attend upon the trial of the man, if he is accused of crime. If
his presence in the Ottoman Empire is objectionable, this legation
will oppose no objection to the action of the Government in
requiring the man to go at once to the United States; but his
continued confinement in prison without trial is protested
against.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
173.—Translation.]
The Sublime Porte to
Mr. Terrell.
The ministry of foreign affairs has received the verbal note that the
legation of the United States of America has kindly addressed to it
on the 29th of December last, No. 14 bis,
relating to the preventive detention of one Atam Aivazian.
[Page 767]
The governor-general of the vilayet of Angora, asked on the subject,
remarks in replying that the aforesaid, accused of having
facilitated the murderer of Kehyaian, was born in the village of
Eilindjé, in the district of Boghozlian, of parents who are Ottoman
subjects, and never ceased to belong legally to his original
nationality.
He has declared, it is true, at the time of his cross-examination
before the cross-examiner, that he went eleven years ago to America
and obtained the American naturalization, but he has not been able
to produce any authentic act or document to sustain his
pretense.
His Excellency Merndouh Bey adds, however, that the examination of
his affair is presently on the point to be closed.
