File No. 18150/3.
Ambassador Leishman to the Secretary of State.
Constantinople, April 3, 1909.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your instruction No. 474, of the 19th ultimo, directing the embassy to report with regard to the removal of former restrictions against the free right of travel in connection with the status, upon their return to Turkey, on visits, of former Turkish subjects who emigrated under the old regime and have acquired foreign nationality.
[Page 560]Two separate questions are, of course, involved in this, the one concerning the free right of travel which was denied under the old regime, the other the law of nationality, which has continued unchanged. As the department is aware, it was formerly impossible to travel in the Ottoman Empire from one province to another without securing a Turkish passport which, while as a rule freely accorded to foreigners, was often denied Ottoman subjects. To-day, while the same regulations exist, the practice is entirely different, and the free right of travel, whether in the Empire or abroad, is accorded to all Ottoman subjects. The objection raised by the Turkish consul general at New York to vise the passport of a naturalized American citizen of Ottoman origin was due to the fear lest by so doing the Turkish Government might be regarded as tacitly acknowledging his acquisition of American citizenship, which the Ottoman law of nationality of 1869 would deny. At the same time any naturalized citizen of Ottoman origin can freely reenter Turkey without fearing arrest as before, the only drawback being that while here the Turkish Government will refuse to recognize his American citizenship. Of course, if willing to revert to his former Ottoman allegiance such individual would experience no difficulty or hindrance of any kind in returning to Turkey. While by the same law of 1869 the Turkish authorities claim the right of refusing admittance to anyone who may have relinquished his Ottoman subjection in order to acquire foreign citizenship, this right is not at present exercised, and it may safely be said that since the promulgation of the constitution thousands of individuals of Ottoman origin have returned to Turkey.
I have, etc.,