Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1894, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress, December 3, 1894

Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

Imperial Legation of Turkey,
Imperial Legation of Turkey, December 8, 1894.

Mr. Secretary of State: I have the honor to confirm my note of November 20, last, and to send herewith to your excellency, merely by way of information, a copy of an official telegram concerning the seditious doings of the revolutionary Armenians in Turkey.

The intrigues of Armenians residing in the United States, their boldfaced slanders, as well as their public endeavors to disparage the Imperial Government (and I confess with grief that they have found in this country, where religion is proclaimed to be a matter of conscience, a notable encouragement at the hands of credulous persons as well as of those who through religious intolerance believe that those Armenians ought to be upheld, not by reason of any imaginary persecution of their race, but solely because they are Christians and regardless of their guilt as subjects), all these facts, I say, must, I am sure, have given your excellency evidence of the kind of people who in reality compose the Armenian colony in the United States, people who nearly all acquire American citizenship for the purpose of returning to Turkey, as acknowledged by Mr. Terrell himself, and thus propagate their revolutionary theories, the existence of which is no longer established by mere assertions but by documents published in the whole press of the United States and by facts.

For all these reasons, the Imperial Government is placed in the attitude of legitimate self-defense, and, like all constituted Governments, should never allow that rebellion be organized and propagated in any part of its territory. I am pleased, therefore, to hope that in view of the gravity of the circurnstances, and of the justice and thorough equity of the plea which I had the honor to set forth in my note of November 9, 1894, the Government of the United States, with its well-known sense of impartiality will now take it under immediate and earnest consideration.

Accept, etc.,

Mavroyeni.

[Inclosure—Telegram.]

Toward the end of July last, and at the instigation of an Armenian, Hampartzoun by name, the men of ten villages near Moush, organized into bands and, armed with guns, pistols, axes, and other implements, attacked the tribe of Delikan, killed several of this tribe, and then made an onslaught on the tribes of Bekiran and Badikan. These bands burned the nephew of Emmer Agha, one of the chiefs of the Bekiran tribe Hadji, alive, and not only outraged the Moslem women of the Kulli-guzat village, but also put them to an atrocious death. Men were also tortured in an even more ferocious way. Not content with these criminal and illegal acts, the same bands also burned several villages inhabitated by Mussulmans. Thanks, however, to measures taken by the constituted authorities, the bands in question were scattered and their leader, Hampartzoun, as also the priest Mighirditch, of Kizil Killisse, and other guilty persons, were arrested and brought to justice.

The assertion often published by the European press that the regular troops shot harmless women and children is absolutely false. No person without arms was killed. Twenty insurgents who had surrendered to the authorities received considerate treatment, and were released after their depositions before the courts of Moush were taken. The place where Hampartzoun and his confederates were found was made known by these 20 insurgents. These facts prove that only 20 among the insurgents surrendered to the authorities, and that, with the exception of the brigands who had revolted, no other person was maltreated.