Page:Armenia, Travels and Studies, Vol. 2.djvu/574

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To the Sublime Porte,

Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Imperial Government has from ancient times granted to the different nations under its righteous protection privileges and prerogatives for their religious liberty and the special administration of their internal affairs.

These prerogatives are in their principles uniform for all nations, but they are at the same time adapted to the particular religious regulations and customs of each nationality. And each nationality has used and enjoyed them according to its peculiar manners and customs.

The Armenian nation, like other nations, has had to this day a Patriarch, who has been acknowledged by the Government as the President of the Patriarchal Administration, the representative of the nation, and the medium of the execution of Imperial Orders, and who from ancient times has been elected from the ecclesiastical body by a General Assembly, composed of individuals representing the different classes of the nation.

The Patriarch in his office, which is to preside over the nation and to watch over its interests, has never been exempt from the influence and supervision of the nation, exerted over him through the General Assembly. The proof of this is that the Patriarch has always invited and convoked the General Assembly, and has applied to that Assembly for a decision when a question has been raised by orders of the Sublime Porte.

The Armenian nation about two years ago begged of the Imperial Government to have two Assemblies established in the Patriarchate under the presidency of the Patriarch, one religious, the other political, that they might be participators in and auxiliaries of the office of the Patriarch, and that any deviation on the part of the nation from its ancient regulations and customs, both religious and political, might be prevented.

When these assemblies were established it became necessary to organise other Councils for the administration of the minor affairs of the nation.

But as the authority and duties of each national officer were not definitely defined, it was evident that these efforts to improve the state of affairs in the nation would be the occasion of continual misunderstanding in the different branches of the National Administration, as well as between that administration and the nation. This naturally would be the cause of many irregularities in the execution of justice for all concerned, and of confusion and disputes in the National Administration.

With the object of doing away with the causes of such confusion and dissension, and with the nuisance of the undue claims of different parties, the Imperial Government, with its paternal solicitude for all its subjects, deems it necessary to organise a National Mixed Committee in order to prepare a Constitution in accordance with the peculiar religious and political customs and long-established manners.