390D.11/171
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. George V. Allen of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs
| Participants: | The Turkish Ambassador |
| Mr. Murray | |
| Mr. Allen |
During the Ambassador’s visit to the Division today, he referred again to the nationality agreement question, and said that he was not entirely clear as to the reply given our Embassy at Ankara by the Turkish Foreign Office. He was shown a copy of Ankara’s telegram No. 28, of April 1, 5 p.m.
[Page 851]The Ambassador said that after re-reading the telegram he was more than ever impressed with the favorable nature of his Government’s reply. He said that as he saw the situation, there were three possible means of relieving the persons involved of their Turkish nationality:
- (1)
- By blanket action by the Turkish Government. Under this method, the Turkish Government would enact a decree releasing from Turkish nationality all persons who fulfilled certain conditions (i. e. who were natives of former parts of the Ottoman Empire detached by the Treaty of Lausanne,7 who were not residing in their country of origin on October 4, 1924, and who were American citizens). The Turkish Government would not know the names of the individual persons affected by the decree. To take such action, the Ambassador felt sure that the present Turkish nationality law would have to be altered by the Turkish Grand National Assembly, for under the present law Turkish nationality may be lost only in individual cases, upon decision of the Turkish Council of Ministers in each case.
- (2)
- By action taken in a large number of cases at one time, based on lists of individual names. The Ambassador had first thought that this method had been definitely refused by the Turkish Government, since Mr. MacMurray’s telegram had stated that action could not be taken “by categories but requires decision by the Council of Ministers in each individual case,” and the Ambassador had understood the word “categories” to mean lists of names (apparently confusing it with the word “cadre”). However, the last sentence of the telegram specified that lists (preferably comprehensive) should be submitted to the Turkish Government. The Ambassador was pleased that his Government had found it possible to take action on the basis of comprehensive lists.
- (3)
- By decision of the Turkish Council of Ministers in individual cases, considered by the Council one at a time. The Ambassador said that this method was already possible under existing law, and would require no special agreement between the Turkish and American governments, but he could appreciate the inadequacy of the method in the present instance.
The Ambassador said that since his Government appears already to have agreed to action by the second method, i. e. on the basis of comprehensive lists, he thought a considerable step forward had been taken. He said that nevertheless he would explore by personal correspondence the possibility of a change in the Turkish law, as envisaged by the first method, which he understood to be what the Department would like if possible.
Mr. Murray expressed appreciation for the Ambassador’s interest. He said that if the Turkish Government found it impracticable to introduce new legislation, he wondered whether it would be possible for the comprehensive lists to be drawn up by the Syrian Associations [Page 852] in the United States, and for us merely to transmit the lists to the Turkish Government without investigation on our part, and with the clear understanding that we did not vouch for the individuals’ assertions either that they were American citizens or that they fulfilled the other necessary requirements.
The Ambassador thought that this might be possible, since the Turkish Government had no interest in the persons involved, and he personally would be very relieved to have their Turkish citizenship cancelled. The lists could be construed as requests by the individuals named that they be released from their Turkish allegiance, and the Turkish Government might conceivably not care whether their assertions as to their individual status had been carefully checked or not. He could appreciate, however, that it would not be desirable to take action which might result in persons being “heimatlos”, and he could not be sure that the Turkish Government would be willing to act on lists which had not been checked by the American Government. However, he would do the best he could to find a satisfactory solution.
- Signed July 24, 1923, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. xxviii, p. 11.↩