390D.11/171
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. George V. Allen of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs
| Participants: | Turkish Ambassador4 |
| Mr. Murray5 | |
| Mr. Alling6 | |
| Mr. Allen |
While the Turkish Ambassador was in the Division today, he was informed of the contents of Ankara’s telegram no. 28, April 1, 5 p.m., regarding the nationality agreement. The Ambassador stated that [Page 850] he considered the reply of the Turkish authorities favorable as far as it went, for it indicated that the Turkish Government was disposed to act favorably upon individual requests for release from Turkish nationality, upon the presentation of those requests to the Turkish authorities through the Department of State.
Mr. Murray pointed out the difficulty of presenting a large number of individual cases through the Department, and wondered whether the Turkish Government had given any consideration to the possibility of changing its citizenship laws in this particular instance, to allow blanket action to be taken releasing from Turkish nationality all of the persons within the category in which we are interested.
The Ambassador said that he would undertake to correspond personally with the Turkish Minister of the Interior and with the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, to find out whether such legislation might be possible. If not, he was hopeful of being able to find some solution that would render it easy for the persons concerned to obtain a release from their Turkish nationality by individual application.
Mr. Murray said that if the Turkish Government should insist upon action in individual cases, he hoped a method could be worked out which would not require the applications to be forwarded through the Department of State.
The Ambassador said he would do his best by private correspondence, and would keep us informed of any developments. He suggested that the Department might desire to defer further instructions to the American Embassy at Ankara until he had had an opportunity to explore the situation himself.
Mr. Murray expressed appreciation for the Ambassador’s interest in the question, and stated that we would take no further action until we had heard from him.