Correspondence Relating to Executions in Turkey for Apostacy from Islamism Part 11

_Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen_.--(_Received April_ 4.)

(Extract.) _Constantinople, March_ 14, 1844.

Since I had last the honour of addressing your Lordship the Turkish Ministers have been almost exclusively occupied with the great question which formed the subject matter of your Lordship's instruction of 16th January. The deferred settlement of this question is, indeed, a source of much inconvenience to all who have business to transact with the Porte. The affairs of Her Majesty's Emba.s.sy, and those of the French and even of the Austrian Legation, are almost suspended. I have, therefore, been doubly anxious to obtain the Porte's definitive answer; but notwithstanding every exertion consistent with the consideration due to an independent and friendly Government, I have only this moment succeeded in obtaining it; and I lament to say that it is so unsatisfactory as to induce me to reject it without a moment's hesitation.

In this decision the French Minister concurs with equal prompt.i.tude and completeness. I inclose herewith the terms of the answer, as reported to us by our respective interpreters. It was given verbally, but with some additional authority derived from the presence of the Grand Vizier and the President of the Council.

The 16th instant had been previously fixed for the delivery of the Porte's answer, and we were content to wait. This morning, however, I received through several channels a confirmation of intelligence which had reached me imperfectly the evening before, to the effect that an unfavourable resolution had already been adopted by the Council, and that the Turkish Ministers deferred the communication of it for the sole purpose of engaging the Sultan's word, and frustrating any eventual appeal to His Majesty. At the same time, therefore, that, in concurrence with the French Minister, I directed M. Pisani to demand an audience, if an immediate and satisfactory answer were not delivered at the Porte, I sent to the Grand Marshal of the Palace and called upon him to apprize the Sultan forthwith of my intention to seek a formal audience of His Majesty, and to entreat that the Royal decision might be withheld until I had an opportunity of executing your Lordship's instruction in that respect.

Meanwhile in spite of adverse appearances, I still retain the opinion expressed in a former part of my correspondence. The Porte, I am satisfied, is prepared to give way in the end, though with much reluctance. Nothing whatever has occurred to warrant the alarming rumours of popular excitement and insurrection diligently circulated, and even countenanced by Rifaat Pasha, some days ago. If my information be correct, there is reason, on the contrary, to believe that not only the Mussulman inhabitants of the capital are sufficiently indifferent to the question at issue, but that many of the upper cla.s.ses, some of the most distinguished Turkish statesmen, and a few even of the Ulemah are favourable to our view of the subject.

Inclosure in No. 34.

_Answer of Rifaat Pasha to M. Frederic Pisani, March_ 14, 1844.

La reponse de son Excellence Rifaat Pacha, dite verbalement et officiellement, se trouve dans une piece qui nous a ete presentee.

Cette piece etait un extrait d'une depeche a Aali Effendi et a Rechid Pacha. Nous avons refuse de la prendre parcequ'elle n'est pas satisfaisante. Elle est concue ainsi: "Comme la loi ne permet nullement de changer les dispositions a l'egard de la punition des apostats, la Sublime Porte prendra des mesures efficaces, les mesures possibles, pour que l'execution des Chretiens qui, devenus Musulmans, retournent au Christianisme, n'ait pas lieu."

(Translation.)

The answer of his Excellency Rifaat Pasha, verbally and officially p.r.o.nounced, is contained in a doc.u.ment which was presented to us.

This doc.u.ment was an extract from a despatch to Aali Effendi and to Reshid Pasha. We refused to take it, because it is not satisfactory.

It is couched in these terms: "As the law does not admit of any change being made in the enactments regarding the punishment of apostates, the Sublime Porte will take efficacious measures, the measures which are possible, in order that the execution of Christians who, having become Mussulmans, return to Christianity, shall not take place."

No. 35.

_The Earl of Aberdeen to Sir Stratford Canning_.

(Extract.) _Foreign Office, April_ 6, 1844.

The latest account which I have received from your Excellency of your proceedings with regard to the question pending with the Porte, arising out of the execution of the Greek near Brussa on the charge of apostacy from Islamism, is contained in your despatch of the 14th of March. From that despatch it appears that, in conjunction with your French colleague, you had rejected as unsatisfactory the communication made to your dragomans on that day by the Ministers of the Porte, and that you were taking measures to secure an audience of the Sultan, in the event of your failing to obtain from the Porte without further delay, a more satisfactory reply.

On the statements in that despatch I have to acquaint your Excellency that Her Majesty's Government concur with you in considering that the communication made to you through your dragoman on the 14th of March, was not of that absolute and unequivocal character which you were instructed in my despatch of the 16th of January to require from the Porte; and that you consequently acted rightly in refusing to receive it, and in taking steps to obtain either a more satisfactory communication from the Ministers of the Porte, or admission to the presence of the Sultan for the purpose of addressing to His Highness in person that appeal which you were directed in case of necessity to make to him.

With regard, however, to the nature of the communication which Her Majesty's Government would consider satisfactory, I have to state to your Excellency that Her Majesty's Government are content to abide by the terms which, it appears from your despatch of the 6th of March, were suggested to Rifaat Pasha on the preceding day by your Excellency and M. de Bourqueney, namely, that the Porte should make "an official declaration that effectual measures would be taken to prevent the recurrence of executions for apostacy," or, as the proposition has been reported by M. de Bourqueney to his Government, "that the Porte will take effectual measures to prevent the renewal of executions similar to those which have recently taken place at Constantinople and Biligik."

With such a declaration, officially made, Her Majesty's Government would be perfectly satisfied, even without the additional clause reported by your Excellency, which appears to them to be unnecessary.

I need scarcely inform your Excellency that Her Majesty's Government look with much anxiety to an early solution of this question. They are sensible of the many inconveniences which the continued agitation of it may involve, although it is with no small satisfaction that they perceive from your Excellency's despatch that there is no present appearance of the difficulties necessarily attached to the question being increased by any insurrectionary or fanatical movement on the part of the Mussulman inhabitants of the Capital.

I have not yet received from the Turkish Amba.s.sador in this country any communication of the despatch from which the answer given to your Excellency, through M. Pisani, appears to be an extract.

It is greatly to be desired that the Porte should act with prompt.i.tude. Much of the embarra.s.sment to which the agitation of this question has given rise, may be traced to the attempt of the Porte to invest it exclusively with a religious character.

No. 36.

_Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen_.--(_Received April_ 10.)

(Extract.) _Constantinople, March_ 23, 1844.

I have the honour and satisfaction to inform your Lordship that the question of religious executions is happily and, to all appearance, conclusively settled. The concession has been obtained with great difficulty; and, even to the last moment, it required the firmness of resolution inspired by your Lordship's instruction to overcome the obstacles which were raised against us, and to keep the Turkish Ministers steady to their professions. I felt it to be my duty to accept nothing short of your Lordship's requisition in its full extent. But this obligation did not preclude me either from adopting such means of success as were best calculated to hasten a favourable result, or from accepting that result in a conciliatory though effective shape. By availing myself of an overture to communicate directly with the Sultan, I succeeded in obtaining all that was necessary, and in receiving His Highness' acknowledgments for the consideration I had shewn to his wishes.

These transactions have so little interest now, that it would be a waste of your Lordship's time to enter upon a narration of them. It may suffice for me to state that, after several unacceptable propositions, the Porte's definitive reply was communicated to me and to the French Minister in suitable terms, and also in writing, which had been long refused; that to leave no doubt of what I understand to be the meaning of the Porte, I sent in an acknowledgment, of which a copy is herewith inclosed, together with a translated copy of the Porte's declaration; and that to-day, at my audience of the Sultan, His Highness not only confirmed what the Porte had declared, but added, in frank and explicit language, the a.s.surances which I had previously required as to the general good treatment of the Christians throughout his dominions. He, in fact, gave me his royal word that, henceforward, neither should Christianity be insulted in his dominions, nor should Christians be in any way persecuted for their religion. Important as it was to obtain this a.s.surance from the lips of the Sovereign himself, I should have thought it right to demand an audience for the mere purpose of removing false impressions from His Highness' mind respecting the motives and objects of Her Majesty's Government. In this respect, also, I had every reason to be satisfied. The Sultan expressed the strongest reliance on the friendly intentions of Great Britain; he fully appreciated the motives which had actuated her on the present occasion; he acknowledged more than once the signal and frequent services rendered to his empire by British arms and counsels; he declared that the great concession which he had now confirmed, though entirely consonant with his own feelings, had been made to his sense of obligation towards the British Government; he called upon me to convey his thanks to Her Majesty for the good treatment experienced by the millions of Mussulman subjects living under British sway in India, and his anxious desire that the engagements which he had taken to protect from violent and undue interference the Christians established in his empire, should be appreciated by Her Majesty's Government, and prove a source of increased good-will between the two nations, and an occasion of eliciting fresh proofs of friendly interest on the part of Great Britain towards his dominions.

What pa.s.sed at this audience is the more important and binding, as it was one of a formal character, applied for on public grounds; and, to give it still greater value, the Sultan, after I had retired from his presence, called back the dragoman of the Porte, and desired him to a.s.sure me that what he had said in public proceeded from his real conviction, and was, in fact, the sincere expression of his personal sentiments.

Inclosure 1 in No. 36.

_Official Declaration of the Sublime Porte, relinquishing the practice of Executions for Apostacy_.

(Translation.)

It is the special and constant intention of His Highness the Sultan that his cordial relations with the High Powers be preserved, and that a perfect reciprocal friendship be maintained, and increased.

The Sublime Porte engages to take effectual measures to prevent henceforward the execution and putting to death of the Christian who is an apostate.

_March_ 21, 1844.

Inclosure 2 in No. 36.

_Acknowledgment of the Sublime Porte's Official Declaration respecting Executions for Apostacy. March_ 22, 1844.

The official declaration communicated by his Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs shall be transmitted to the British Government, who will understand with satisfaction that the Sublime Porte, in taking effectual measures to prevent henceforward the execution and putting to death of any Christian, an apostate from Islamism, relinquishes for ever a principle inconsistent with its friendly professions; and the further a.s.surances to be given at the Amba.s.sador's audience of the Sultan, in the sense of the instruction presented in copy to the Porte on the 9th ultimo, will fully satisfy the British Government that Christianity is not to be insulted in His Highness' empire, nor any one professing it to be treated as a criminal, or persecuted on that account.

(Signed) STRATFORD CANN1NG.

No. 37.