Gutman|295Christians laboring in tobacco factories in the Ottoman Balkans forged alliances
and organized strikes to demand higher pay and better working conditions. In
other contexts, however, ethnicity and religion proved to be much more salient
factors in defining affiliation and identity. As mentioned earlier, Mavroyeni’s ef-
forts were complicated by Armenian migrants almost universally avoiding con-
tact with Ottoman diplomatic officials in the United States. Their refusal to do
so at least in part reflected that many Ottoman Armenians felt that the empire’s
government did not represent their interests either at home or abroad. Ottoman
Muslim migrants in the United States, on the other hand, appear to have been
much more likely to establish and maintain communication with Ottoman dip-
lomatic officials. In stark contrast with their Armenian counterparts, for Otto-
man Muslim migrants, living in a country almost wholly unfamiliar with and
often hostile to Muslims, Ottoman diplomatic officials were among the very few
voices they could rely on to represent their interests.
Finally, the figure of Alexandros Mavroyeni reflects much about the Otto-
man Empire in its final decades. Despite his Phanariot provenance that linked
him to an earlier era of Ottoman governance, in many ways Mavroyeni embod-
ied the late nineteenth-century Ottoman state’s own self-image. The ease with
which he integrated into and identified with elite American social circles mir-
rored the sense of many Ottoman elites that they were part of a broader, modern
global elite with similar interests and concerns. To this end, Mavroyeni’s British,
French, or Russian counterparts would have hardly deemed Mavroyeni’s strate-
gies to deal with the “threat” posed by Armenian political organizations in the
United States unusual or extreme. Thus, it is important to read this stor y through
an appropriately global and comparative lens.
Suggestions for Further Reading
Deringil, Selim. The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in
the Ottoman Empire, 1876–1909. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2011. This is a thorough
analysis of Ottoman efforts at image management at home and abroad.
Gregg, Robert. “Valleys of Fear: Policing Terror in an Imperial Age, 1865–1925.” In
Beyond Sovereignty: Britain, Empire and Transnationalism, c. 1880–1950, edited by
Frank Trentmann, Philippa Levine, and Kevin Grant, 103–125. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2007. This chapter analyzes British efforts to police the activities of
dissident political organizations.
Libaridian, Gerard. “What Was Revolutionary about Armenian Revolutionary Parties
in the Ottoman Empire?” In A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at
the End of the Ottoman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. This is an
analysis of Armenian politics in the late-Ottoman period.
Mirak, Robert. Torn between Two Lands: Armenians in America, 1890 to World War I.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. This is a dated but thorough
analysis of the Armenian migration to and life in the United States.