Economic and moral influence on U.S. policies toward Turkey and the Armenians

Abstract

The years in which the Turkish Nationalists waged a war of freedom from foreign occupation were marked by pervasive American sympathy for supporting the independent Armenian Republic and later an “Armenian National Home” in Turkey. But the primary motivations of Washington policymakers in the settlement of the Eastern Question were the establishment of the principle of the Open Door and the protection of specific economic privileges for American capitalists in formerly Ottoman territories. From 1919 to 1923 many of the most influential American policymakers, educators, clergy and philanthropic leaders clearly recognized the legitimacy of Armenian claims