Judicial Assistance

Extract

In a note of June 10, 1980, the Turkish Embassy requested assistance from the Department of State in connection with a child custody proceeding in a Virginia State court. The court had reportedly ruled that, because there was martial law in certain Turkish provinces, Turkey was not a safe place of residence for the children. The Embassy suggested that it was not for the court to “pass judgment about conditions in Turkey about which authoritative information is not in its possession”; rather, it was “the responsibility of the executive to make a policy decision about the visit and residence of U.S. citizens in foreign countries and [to] inform the judicial and legislative bodies.”