The requirement of security is likely to interpose a new difficulty in
getting the wives of our naturalized Armenians away, even if consent to
leave is given, for their poverty-stricken friends can not furnish the
security.
[Inclosure 1017.—From Levant Herald,
October 9, 2896.]
Imperial Iradé.
the emigration of
armenians.
The following official communication appeared this morning in all the
Turkish papers published in the capital:
In consequence of recent events in Constantinople, certain members of
the Armenian community, fathers of families or bachelors, artisans,
merchants, or others, continue to emigrate. Then individuals of no
certain occupation find their way somehow into the various vilayets
of the Empire.
Now, the Armenian agitators attribute this emigration to an alleged
want of confidence and nonexisting security in the capital. They
invent and publish in this connection all sorts of lies and
incorrect statements.
Since the foundation of the Ottoman Empire, need it be said, the
Imperial Government has never ceased pursuing a just line of
conduct, the object being to safeguard the lives, property, and
honor of its loyal subjects. The Imperial Government is in a
position, under the protecting scepter of His Imperial Majesty the
Sultan, to prevent all cause of anxiety or fear, which might induce
further emigration. Thus, all who desire to leave the country must
sign a document and also have a solvable guaranty, confirmed by the
patriarchate, that they will not return to Turkey. This declaration
must be accompanied by the likeness of the emigrant, and it will
only be after fulfilling such formalities that emigration will be
authorized. The passports delivered to these emigrants will state
that such persons will not be
[Page 938]
allowed to set foot again on Ottoman
territory. The explanation in question, as well as a declaration
that the emigrants have lost Ottoman nationality, will he duly
inscribed in the registers of the commission ad hoc, in the archives
of the competent department, as well as at the chancellery of the
Armenian patriarchate. A delay of a month and a half, and in cases
of plausible hindrance, two months’ delay, commencing from to-day,
will be granted to those who have gone abroad without authorization
from the Imperial Government, to return to their homes. In the event
of their design to stay where they are, they must make a declaration
to this effect in the Turkish embassies or legations abroad.
Emigrants of this category will, nevertheless, lose their
nationality as Ottoman subjects, unless they return to Turkey within
the above-named period.
Ottoman Armenian subjects who have emigrated under false names and
yet by diverse means have returned to Turkey with foreign passports
will not be recognized as foreign subjects, nor will they be allowed
to live in any part of the Empire.
Armenians who have emigrated during the past twenty years, and
especially members of the committee of agitators, will not benefit
from the present arrangement. Consequently they will not be
permitted to return here. Every agitator who returns to Turkey will
be arrested and brought before the ordinary tribunals.
As regards Armenians of foreign nationality, who in great numbers are
among the agitators as organizers of disturbance, the Government and
the police rind it difficult to distinguish between the one and the
other. In consequence such foreign Armenians will not be allowed to
assume Ottoman nationality, in accordance with the law which
authorizes the admission of other foreigners to become Ottoman
subjects.
These regulations, decided upon at a council of ministers, have been
sanctioned by Imperial iradé.
