You will rise your best endeavor to obtain this action with as little delay
as possible.
[Inclosure in No. 15.]
Mr. Arakelyan to
Mr. Bayard.
Boston,
Mass., August 20,
1885.
Dear Sir: Your favor of the 17th instant was
duly received, for which please accept most hearty thanks. I shall he
highly pleased to have the State Department continue in their request to
the Turkish Government to right the matter affecting unjustly an
American citizen, and to secure an iradé if that seems best in the
Department’s judgment.
The facts, in brief, of my coming to the United States, and, becoming one
of its citizens, are as follows: When I was a boy, and my father was
residing at Erzeroom, away from his family, he sent for me to join him
there, leaving Arabkir, where I was born. While I was at Erzeroom my
father’s business compelled him to go to Trebizond, leaving me alone for
two years, in which time a few of my friends, with myself, became
desirous to go to the United States. Accordingly, in 1866, five of us
left Erzeroom for this country, but when we reached Trebizond, where my
father still was, he at once objected to my plan, and my companions
continued their journey without me. At length my father, seeing that I
should never be satisfied till I reached America, embraced the
opportunity to let me go in the spring of 1867 with an American family,
Mr. M. P. Parmelee and family, who were at Trebizond as missionaries of
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
On reaching Constantinople we met a Mrs. Walker whose husband had died at
Diarbekir, and she had come to Constantinople with her children to join
other missionaries in returning to this country. I was then engaged to
assist her in the care of her family from Constantinople to Boston,
where we arrived July 15, 1867, going at once to her father’s home at
Auburndale, Mass., where I remained, studying, about one year. From
there I went to Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., Messrs. H. O.
Houghton & Coproprietors, with the intention of learning the art of
printing, and returning to Turkey.
But as time went on my plans changed. On the 4th of June, 1879, I married
an American lady at her home in Lancaster, Mass. In February, 1883, I
left the Riverside Press, and opened a book and newspaper printing
office at 226 Franklin street, Boston, where I still continue in
business, residing at Cambridgeport, Mass., where I have been
naturalized as you already know, having in your possession a certified
copy of my naturalization paper.
Please observe, in view of the above facts, that there have been no
obstacles to my coming to this country besides my father’s unwillingness
to part with his son, at first, and that no one has ever entered into
bonds for me that I know of, nor did I ever hear of such a custom, as I
must have done had any such arrangement been entered into for me, as the
Turkish minister of foreign affairs presupposes.
There is no need to state that the facts in the case do entitle me to the
protection and privileges of a citizen of the United States, and I feel
sure that since you have so kindly and faithfully done so much already
for me and for the right, you will eventually, with persistence, see
wrongs righted and satisfaction gained. Thanking you again for the
attention you are bestowing upon the matter,
I remain, &c.,
