Ottoman Empire–United States relations

{{Infobox bilateral relations|Ottoman–American|Ottoman Empire|United States|mission1=Embassy of the Ottoman Empire, Washington D.C.|mission2=Embassy of the United States, Istanbul|flagvariant2=1912}}

The relations between the Ottoman Empire and the United States have a long history, with roots before American independence due to long-standing trade between the two regions.{{Cite book |last=Erhan |first=Çağrı |title=Türk-Amerikan İlişkilerinin Tarihsel Kökenleri |publisher=İmge Kitabevi |year=2015 |edition=2nd |location=Ankara |publication-date=2015 |pages=41–42 |language=Turkish}} After the American independence in 1776, the first relations between these two countries started through the contact between the American merchants, statesmen and lastly the Navy and North African countries (under the rule of the Ottomans at that time){{Cite journal |last=Lippe |first=John M. Vander |date=1997 |title="The Terrible Turk": The Formulation and Perpetuation of a Stereotype in American Foreign Policy |journal=American Foreign Policy |volume=17 |pages=39–57 |via=Cambridge}} and with the Ottoman Empire after 1780.{{how|date=June 2019}}Andrew C. A. Jampoler, Embassy to the Eastern Courts: America's Secret First Pivot Toward Asia, 1832–37 (Annapolis: Naval Institute, 2015. xvi, 236 pp.

History of relations

=American tribute to the Ottoman Empire=

On September 5, 1795,Ross, Frank E. [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/236266?journalCode=jmh The Mission of Joseph Donaldson, Jr., to Algiers, 1795-97] The Journal of Modern History. Volume 7, Number 4, pp. 422ff December 22, 1935. Joseph Donaldson, Junior, appointed by then 1st Minister of US to Portugal David Humphreys, signed the Treaty of Algiers with Hassan Bashaw, Dey

of Algiers.Hunter Miller, ed. (1931), Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America. According to this treaty, the USA would pay 642,000 gold one-time and 12,000 Ottoman gold ($21,600) per year for the no war against America and in exchange of extradition of prisoners in Algeria and the lack of touching any ship carrying the US banner both in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean. It is the only U.S. document in its history to acknowledge the payment of taxes to a foreign state, as well as the only treaty in a foreign language in more than two centuries of history. The USA remained loyal to this 22-article treaty until 1818.Robert J. Allison, [https://archive.org/details/crescentobscured0000alli/page/153/mode/1up?view=theater The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World], 1776-1815, Oxford University Press: New York

However, the first contact between the United States and the Ottoman central government took place when Captain William Bainbridge of the USS George Washington of the American Navy had to sail to Constantinople in 1800 upon being compelled by the Dey of Algiers to deliver the Dey's gifts and envoy to the Ottoman Sultan and Bainbridge arrive in Istanbul on November 9, 1800, marking the first direct encounter of the United States and Ottoman government.[http://www.levantineheritage.com/pdf/Levant-Trade-Review-and-Turkish-American-commercial-relations.pdf]

=US Barbary Wars=

In the early 19th century, the US fought the Barbary Wars against the Barbary states, which were under Ottoman suzerainty.

In 1825, during the Greek War of Independence and Greek civil wars of 1823-1825, the U.S. Navy conducted anti-piracy operations in the Aegean Sea. Greece and the Aegean were controlled by the Ottomans until Greece achieved independence in 1829. The first draft of the Monroe Doctrine, written in 1823, included a passage praising the Greek revolutionaries, though the passage was ultimately removed.{{cite book|author=Jay Sexton|title=The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4GVKXN8SWYC&pg=PA59|year=2011|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|pages=59–60|isbn=9781429929288}}

In 1831 the U.S. sent its first formally approved envoy to the Ottoman Empire, David Porter.Sinan Kuneralp, "Ottoman Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in the United States of America, 1867–1917." (2001) p. 100 [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 online]. The empire and the U.S. at that point had their representatives at the "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary" level.{{cite journal|author=Syed Tanvir Wasti|title=Ahmed Rüstem Bey and the End of an Era|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=48|issue=5|year=2012|pages=781–796|doi=10.1080/00263206.2012.703616|s2cid=144132608}} - Published online August 14, 2012 - Cited: p. 781. Sinan Kuneralp, author of "Ottoman Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in the United States of America, 1867–1917," wrote that the empire initially apparently lacked "any sensible justification" to open a mission stateside due to the relative distance between the countries. Wasti wrote that "there was no real rush on the Ottoman side to send diplomatic envoys to Washington, DC".

The first official Ottoman government visit to the U.S., lasting for six months in 1850, was that of Emin Bey, who toured shipyards there.Kuneralp, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 100]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 101]. Two Ottoman officials, one being Edouard Blak Bey, who sensed the rise of the United States, unsuccessfully advocated for installing a mission in the U.S. during the early 1850s. The first Ottoman honorary consulate in the U.S. opened in May 1858.Kuneralp, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105 105]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 106].

In 1866 Ottoman foreign minister Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha declined to start a legation to the U.S. that year, after reviewing a proposal by Ambassador to France of the Ottoman Empire Safvet Pasha. However the ministry changed its mind after the leaders there perceived the reports of the Cretan revolt (1866–1869) from the US consul W.J. Stillman and other American reports to be misleading and decided they needed to present a counter-view. The empire sent its first permanent envoy to the U.S. in 1867, creating the Ottoman Legation in Washington, DC. Since the empire itself began establishing its diplomatic missions in the 1830s and due to the about three decade gap between the respective legations being established, Kuneralp wrote that the Ottomans created their U.S. mission "comparatively late".

Blak was the first envoy to Washington. Kuneralp wrote that the Washington posting was not considered important to the Ottoman government, which is why some officials refused the posting and those considered promising were turned away from it. He cited the cases of then-minister to Florence Rüstem Bey and Osman Nizami Pasha, who declined in 1867 and 1912, respectively.Kuneralp, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 101]. "During the half-century that followed Blacque's appointment till 1917[...]12 heads of missions succeeded one another in Washington." Nine envoys headed the legation beginning in 1877 and prior to full embassy status,Turkish Yearbook of International Relations. Ankara Üniversitesi Diş Munasebetler Enstitüsü, 2000. (head book says 2000/2 Special Issue of Turkish-American Relations. Issue 31, Page 13. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YN5VAAAAYAAJ&q=1912 13]. "Over the 35 years that the dispute lasted (1877-1912), some nine envoys succeeded one another at the head of the Washington mission which was raised to Embassy level in 1912,[...]" and there were a total of 13 envoys/ambassadors in the position. Author Elizabeth R. Varon wrote that the US, in the late 1800s, had little power of persuasion over the Ottoman Empire, handicapping the power of US minister to the empire James Longstreet.{{cite web|last=Wineapple|first=Brenda|author-link=Brenda Wineapple|url=https://www.nytimes.com:443/2023/11/22/books/review/longstreet-elizabeth-r-varon.html|title=A Political Convert in the Long Shadow of the Civil War|newspaper=The New York Times|place=New York City|date=2023-11-22|access-date=2024-08-25}}

Mustafa Shekib Bey, in 1904, recommended that the Ottomans appoint Levantine Armand Guys as the first commercial attaché, arguing that commercial relations had increased.Kuneralp, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105 105].

In 1906 the U.S. upgraded its representation in Constantinople to the embassy level.

The most important aspect of American diplomacy in the late 19th century, down to 1914, involved protection of the hundreds of American Protestant missionaries to the Ottoman Empire.Edward Mead Earle, "American Missions in the Near East." Foreign Affairs 7.3 (1929): 398-417. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20028702 online]Roger R. Trask, The United States Response to Turkish Nationalism and Reform, 1914-1939 (1971) pp 3-15.

= Armenian issues =

Abdul Hamid II disliked it when the Americans pleaded for help for Armenians. As a result, he terminated the credentials of envoy Mustafa Shekib, and chose not to upgrade the mission to embassy status. Shekib therefore was unable to present his credentials to the President. Shekib slept in the daytime, and so his staff dealt with U.S. officials. Kuneralp stated that therefore "Things were eased out".{{Cite book|last=Kuneralp|first=Sinan|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102|title=American Turkish Encounters: Politics and Culture, 1830-1989|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=2011|isbn=978-1-4438-3260-1|editor-last=Esenbel|editor-first=Selcuk|pages=102|language=en|chapter=Ottoman Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in the United States of America, 1867–1917|editor-last2=Criss|editor-first2=Bilge Nur|editor-last3=Greenwood|editor-first3=Tony}}

= Moro rebellion in the Philippines =

In 1899, John Hay, the American Secretary of State, asked the Jewish American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Oscar Straus to request Sultan Abdul Hamid II to write a letter to the Moro Sulu Muslims of the Sulu Sultanate in the Philippines telling them to submit to American suzerainty and American military rule (see Philippine–American War). The Sultan obliged and wrote the letter, which was sent to Sulu via Mecca; two Sulu chiefs delivered it to Sulu and it was successful since the "Sulu Mohammedans... refused to join the insurrectionists and had placed themselves under the control of our army, thereby recognizing American sovereignty."{{cite book|author=Kemal H. Karpat|title=The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvVlS3ljx20C&q=Pleased+sultan+Philippines+khalif+Sulu+chiefs+understanding&pg=PA235|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-513618-0|pages=235–}}

Abdul Hamid used his position as caliph to order the Sulu Sultan not to resist and not fight the invading Americans.{{cite book|author=Moshe Yegar|title=Between Integration and Secession: The Muslim Communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma/Myanmar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5q7qxi5LBgC&q=Straus+Sulu+Ottoman&pg=PA397|date=1 January 2002|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-0356-2|pages=397–}} President McKinley did not mention the Ottoman role in the pacification of the Sulu Moros in his address to the first session of the 56th Congress in December 1899 since the agreement with the Sultan of Sulu was not submitted to the Senate until December 18.{{cite book|title=Political Science Quarterly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zOLE6zY-AewC&q=Straus+Sulu+Ottoman&pg=PA22|year=1904|publisher=Academy of Political Science.|pages=22–}} Despite Sulu's "pan-Islamic" ideology, he readily acceded to Straus' request to avoid hostilities between the West and Muslims.{{cite book|author=Mustafa Akyol|title=Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2mRXt7NtFhEC&q=Straus+Sulu+Ottoman&pg=PA159|date=18 July 2011|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=978-0-393-07086-6|pages=159–}} The Sulu sultan was persuaded by the Ottoman Sultan.{{cite book|author=J. Robert Moskin|title=American Statecraft: The Story of the U.S. Foreign Service|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pc5FAQAAQBAJ&q=Straus+Sulu+Ottoman&pg=PA204|date=19 November 2013|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1-250-03745-9|pages=204–}}

John P. Finley wrote that,

"After due consideration of these facts, the Sultan, as Caliph caused a message to be sent to the Mohammedans of the Philippine Islands forbidding them to enter into any hostilities against the Americans, inasmuch as no interference with their religion would be allowed under American rule. As the Moros have never asked more than that, it is not surprising, that they refused all overtures made, by Aguinaldo's agents, at the time of the Filipino insurrection. President McKinley sent a personal letter of thanks to Mr. Straus for the excellent work he had done, and said, its accomplishment had saved the United States at least twenty thousand troops in the field. If the reader will pause to consider what this means in men and also the millions in money, he will appreciate this wonderful piece of diplomacy, in averting a holy war."{{cite book|author1=George Hubbard Blakeslee|author2=Granville Stanley Hall|author3=Harry Elmer Barnes|title=The Journal of International Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hwdPWJMbZCQC&q=Straus+Sulu+Ottoman&pg=PA358|year=1915|publisher=Clark University.|pages=358–}}{{cite book|title=The Journal of Race Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e9vfAAAAMAAJ&q=Straus+Sulu+Ottoman&pg=PA358|year=1915|publisher=Clark University|pages=358–}}{{cite book|author=Idris Bal|title=Turkish Foreign Policy in Post Cold War Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDzjkrTDKjYC&pg=PA405|year=2004|publisher=Universal-Publishers|isbn=978-1-58112-423-1|pages=405–}}

The Muslim peoples obeyed the order.{{cite book|author=Idris Bal|title=Turkish Foreign Policy in Post Cold War Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDzjkrTDKjYC&q=Abdulhamid+issued+decree+people+territory+support+America+Muslim+accepted&pg=PA406|year=2004|publisher=Universal-Publishers|isbn=978-1-58112-423-1|pages=406–}}

In 1904, the Moro Rebellion then broke out between the Americans and Moro Muslims.

= Young Turk Revolution =

The Young Turk Revolution removed Abdul Hamid II from power in 1908, and officials more favorable to the U.S. replaced him. The Ottoman Legation in Washington was designated as an embassy in 1909, and given the second class ranking; the Ottoman Empire at the time ranked its embassies by importance.İhsanoğlu, Ekmeleddin. History of the Ottoman State, society & civilisation: Vol. 1. IRCICA, Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture, 2001. {{ISBN|9290630531}}, 9789290630531. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zhRXAAAAYAAJ&q=Ottoman+legation+Washington+opened 343]. "Changes which were initiated in 1886 divided Ottoman embassies into four categories." - [https://books.google.com/books?id=zhRXAAAAYAAJ&q=Washington View #2]: "second class embassies in Washington and Montenegro[...]"

During the Presidency of William Howard Taft, an American strategy was to become involved in business transactions rather than military confrontations, a policy known as Dollar Diplomacy. It failed with respect to the Ottoman Empire because of opposition from US ambassador Oscar Straus and to Turkish vacillation under pressure from the entrenched European powers who did not wish to see American competition. American trade remained a minor factor.Naomi W. Cohen, "Ambassador Straus in Turkey, 1909-1910: A Note on Dollar Diplomacy." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 45.4 (1959) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1888714 online]

= [[World War I]] and the [[Armenian genocide]] =

Henry Morgenthau, Sr. was the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I until 1916. Morgenthau criticized the ruling Three Pashas for the Armenian genocide and sought to get help for the Armenians.{{cite web|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-111hrpt622/html/CRPT-111hrpt622.htm|title=AFFIRMATION OF THE UNITED STATES RECORD ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION|publisher=Govinfo.gov|access-date=2023-11-18}} Jesse B. Jackson, consul in Aleppo, also assisted Armenians.

Morgenthau's replacement Abram Isaac Elkus, served in 1916–1917.

The Ottomans severed diplomatic relations with the United States on April 20, 1917, after the United States had declared war against Germany on April 4, 1917. The United States never declared war on the Ottoman Empire.Spencer Tucker, ed. Encyclopedia of World War I (2005) p 1080

On January 28, 1919,{{cite journal|last=Bryson|first=Thomas|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/162089|title=Admiral Mark L. Bristol, an Open-Door Diplomat in Turkey|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|volume=5|issue=4|date=September 1974|pages=450–467}} - Cited: p. 452. Mark Lambert Bristol began serving as the High Commissioner for Turkey. He served in this role through the end of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Empire's successor state.{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/mm79013854|title=Mark L. Bristol papers|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=2023-11-18}} Thomas A. Bryson of West Georgia College wrote that in 1919 "the United States enjoyed a benevolent reputation in Turkey" due to missionary work done by Americans and because the United States did not declare war on the empire.{{cite journal|last=Bryson|first=Thomas|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/162089|title=Admiral Mark L. Bristol, an Open-Door Diplomat in Turkey|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|volume=5|issue=4|date=September 1974|pages=450–467}} - Cited: p. 454. He also stated that Bristol had "built up a large deposit of Turkish good will for the United States".{{cite journal|last=Bryson|first=Thomas|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/162089|title=Admiral Mark L. Bristol, an Open-Door Diplomat in Turkey|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|volume=5|issue=4|date=September 1974|pages=450–467}} - Cited: p. 451.

Bristol's role ended in 1927, when normal diplomatic relations were established with Turkey.

Diplomatic missions

U.S. diplomatic missions in the empire included:

Constantinople (Istanbul) – Legation/Embassy
It was located in Pera, now known as Beyoğlu.{{cite journal|title=Unstated|journal=Servet-i Fünun|number=1423|date=1919-08-21|page=[https://archives.saltresearch.org/bitstream/123456789/129259/37/PFSIF9190821A277%20(1919-08-21).jpg cover]}} - caption is in French
AleppoHurewitz, J. C. (editor). "Ottoman-American Severance of Relations." The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics: A Documentary Record - British-French Supremacy, 1914-1945. Yale University Press, 1979. {{ISBN|0300022034}}, 9780300022032. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=w9TsVxeUkQMC&pg=PA99 99].
Consul: Jesse B. Jackson
Beirut
Brusa (Bursa)
Harput/Kharpert (now in Elazığ)
Started from January 1, 1901 with Dr. Thomas H. Norton as the consul;Armenian Perspectives: 10th Anniversary Conference of the Association Internationale Des Études Arméniennes, School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Psychology Press, 1997. {{ISBN|0700706100}}, 9780700706105. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6BVqsmrT7SUC&pg=PA293 293]. he had no previous experience in international relations, as the U.S. was just recently establishing its diplomatic network.Armenian Perspectives: 10th Anniversary Conference of the Association Internationale Des Études Arméniennes, School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Psychology Press, 1997. {{ISBN|0700706100}}, 9780700706105. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6BVqsmrT7SUC&pg=PA297 2937]. The consulate was established to assist missionaries. The Ottoman Ministry of Internal Security gave him a teskireh travel permit, but the Ottoman Ministry of Foreign Affairs initially refused to recognize the consulate. The building had three stories, a wall, and a garden with mulberry trees. Leslie A. Davis became consul of Harpoot in 1914; Davis stated that this mission was "one of the most remote and inaccessible in the world".{{cite web|author=White, Edward|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/02/03/the-great-crime/|title=The Great Crime|work=The Paris Review|date=2017-02-03|access-date=2020-04-09}} Davis observed the Armenian genocide.{{cite book|last1=Merrill D. Peterson|title="Starving Armenians": America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After|page=35}} Davis hid about 80 Armenians in the consulate grounds. His term ended with the cessation of Ottoman-U.S. relations in 1917.
Jerusalem
Mersina (Mersin)
Samsun
Smyrna (now İzmir)

Ottoman diplomatic missions to the U.S. included:

Washington, DC (Embassy) – Classified as a "second class embassy".
New York City (Consulate-General)
Established after the 1880s to monitor anti-Ottoman activity. New York City, previously served by an honorary consulate, had received increased immigration from the empire. Ottoman envoy Alexandros Mavrogenis had advocated for a full consulate-general and afterwards, on the grounds of New York having more diplomatic importance to the empire than Washington, DC, asked the Ottoman government for a vice consul in New York. The consuls in New York began to squabble for power with the Washington consuls.Kuneralp, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 106]. Kuneralp wrote that the conflict between New York City consul general Refet Bey and his respective Washington envoy, Yusuf Ziya Pasha, "took almost epical dimensions."Kuneralp, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 107].
Boston (Consulate-General)
Established in 1910 so the Ottomans could surveil Armenians in the U.S.

Honorary Ottoman consulates in the U.S.:

Baltimore
William Grange served as honorary consul, selected by Blak.
Boston (later replaced with a consulate-general)
Joseph Yazidiji, an Ottoman citizen, was an honorary consul.
Chicago
New Orleans
J. O. Nixon was honorary consul, selected by Blak.
New York City (later replaced with a consulate-general)
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Washington DC/Baltimore (later replaced with a legation/embassy)
George Porter became the honorary consul for Washington, DC and Baltimore in May 1858.

=Ottoman ministers and ambassadors to the U.S.=

Edouard Blak Bey - 1867-
Gregory Aristarchis Bey
Hüseyin Tevfik Pasha
Alexandros Mavrogenis Bey
Mustafa Tahsin Bey – Died of tuberculosis shortly after he began his position
Ali Ferruh Bey
Mustafa Shekib Bey
Mohammed Ali Bey al-Abed a.k.a. Mehmed Ali Bey
Hüseyin Kazım Bey - Appointed as the first ambassador
Yusuf Ziya Pasha
Ahmet Rüstem Bey a.k.a. Alfred de Bilinsky – The final Ottoman Ambassador to the U.S.

The Ottoman government chose to continue the mission with a charge, Hüseyin Avni Bey, after World War I began, and this appointment ended with the cutoff of diplomatic relations on April 20, 1917.Kuneralp, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103 103].{{Citation|title=Ottoman Empire during World War I|date=2020-09-13|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ottoman_Empire_during_World_War_I&oldid=978200736|work=Wikipedia|language=en|access-date=2020-10-13}}

Kuneralp stated that these officials were "interesting figures" but that there was not "a Wellington Koo" among them and "they did not shine in their diplomatic careers", as the Ottoman government did not view this post to be important. He also stated that Madame Bey, wife of first secretary Sıtkı Bey, due to her participation in American social life, was actually the most well-known person in the Ottoman diplomatic community within the US.

=American ministers and ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire=

Chargé d'Affaires:

George W. Erving (pre-1831)
David Porter (September 13, 1831 – May 23, 1840)

Minister Resident:

David Porter (May 23, 1840 – March 3, 1843)
Dabney Smith Carr (February 29, 1844 – October 20, 1849)
George Perkins Marsh (March 11, 1850 – December 19, 1853)
Carroll Spence (February 9, 1854 – December 12, 1857)
James Williams (May 27, 1858 – May 25, 1861)
Edward Joy Morris (October 22, 1861 – October 25, 1870)
Wayne MacVeagh (October 25, 1870 – June 10, 1871)
George H. Boker (March 25, 1872 – May 1, 1875)
Horace Maynard (June 12, 1875 – July 15, 1880)
James Longstreet (December 14, 1880 – April 29, 1881)
Lewis Wallace (September 6, 1881 – September 4, 1882)

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary:

Lewis Wallace (September 4, 1882 – May 15, 1885)
Samuel S. Cox (August 25, 1885 – September 14, 1886)
Oscar S. Straus (July 1, 1887 – June 16, 1889)
Solomon Hirsch (December 28, 1889 – June 16, 1892){{cite web|title=President Benjamin Harrison Names Solomon Hirsch Minister to Turkey|url=http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?president-benjamin-harrison-appoints-third-jewish-minister-to-turkey-1889|work=Shapell Manuscript Collection|publisher=Shapell Manuscript Foundation}}
David P. Thompson (January 11, 1893 – May 1, 1893)
Alexander W. Terrell (July 7, 1893 – June 15, 1897)
James Burrill Angell (September 3, 1897 – August 13, 1898)
Oscar S. Straus (October 15, 1898 – December 20, 1899)
John G. A. Leishman (March 29, 1901 – October 5, 1906)

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary:

John G. A. Leishman (October 5, 1906 – June 10, 1909)
Oscar S. Straus (October 4, 1909 – September 3, 1910)
William Woodville Rockhill (August 28, 1911 – November 20, 1913)
Henry Morgenthau, Sr. (December 11, 1913 – February 1, 1916)
Abram I. Elkus (October 2, 1916 – April 20, 1917)

High Commissioner for Turkey:

Mark Lambert Bristol (January 28, 1919 - end of empire)