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Munir Ertegun

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Münir Ertegun
Ertegun in 1942
2nd Ambassador of Turkey to the United States
In office
1934–1944
President
Preceded byAhmet Muhtar Mollaoğlu
Succeeded byOrhan Halit Erol
4th Ambassador of Turkey to the United Kingdom
In office
1932–1934
PresidentMustafa Kemal Atatürk
Preceded byAhmet Ferit Tek
Succeeded byAli Fethi Okyar
2nd Ambassador of Turkey to France
In office
1930–1932
PresidentMustafa Kemal Atatürk
Preceded byFethi Okyar
Succeeded byBehiç Erkin
Ambassador of Turkey to Switzerland
In office
1925–1930
PresidentMustafa Kemal Atatürk
Preceded byRefik Birgen
Succeeded byCemal Hüsnü Taray
Personal details
Born
Mehmet Münir Cemil

1883
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died11 November 1944(1944-11-11) (aged 60–61)
Washington, DC, US
Resting placeSultantepe, Üsküdar, Istanbul
Spouse
Emine Hayrünnisa Rüstem
​
​
(m. 1917)​
Children3, including Ahmet and Nesuhi
EducationIstanbul University (Law)
Occupation
  • Diplomat
  • legal counsel

Munir Ertegun (Turkish spelling: Münir Ertegün; 1883 – 11 November 1944) was a Turkish legal counsel in international law to the "Sublime Porte" (imperial government) of the late Ottoman Empire and a diplomat of the Republic of Turkey during its early years. Ertegun married Emine Hayrünnisa Rüstem in 1917 and the couple had three children, two of whom were Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun, the brothers who founded Atlantic Records and became iconic figures in the American music industry.

Life and career

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The Turkish Ambassador to Washington, Münir Ertegün and his family, including his sons Ahmet Ertegün (left) and Nesuhi Ertegün (right), and his daughter, Selma (middle) in February 1942

Born in Istanbul to a civil servant father, Mehmed Cemil Bey, and a mother Ayşe Hamide Hanım, who was a daughter of Sufi shaykh İbrahim Edhem Efendi,[1] he studied law at Darülfünûn-u Şahâne (دار الفنون شهانه), now Istanbul University, and graduated in 1908. He was a legal counsel for the Ottoman Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when he saw the birth of his first son, Nesuhi, on 26 November 1917, in Constantinople (now Istanbul), during the First World War.[2] Taking part in an Ottoman delegation with a mission to seek reconciliation with the Nationalists in Ankara, by the end of 1920, changed his destiny. While the two Ottoman ministers heading the delegation returned to Istanbul after not achieving an understanding with the revolutionaries led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha he chose to join the National Struggle and remained in Ankara, leaving behind his young wife and three-year-old son, Nesuhi.[2] He became an aide to Mustafa Kemal during the Turkish War of Independence and the chief legal counsel of the Turkish delegation to the resulting Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.

After the Western powers recognized the newly founded Republic of Turkey in 1923, he was sent to Geneva to the League of Nations as an observer for the Turkish Republic. During this assignment, he frequently went to Paris for the Ottoman public debt negotiations. Following this posting to the League of Nations, he was appointed ambassador to Switzerland (1925–1930), France (1930–1932), the United Kingdom (1932–1934)[3] and the United States (1934–1944).

As the Republic's ambassador to Washington, Ertegun opened his embassy's parlors to African American jazz musicians, who gathered there to play freely in a socio-historical context which was deeply divided by racial segregation at the time.[4] Ertegun worked also on his government's orders to remove any mention of the Armenian Genocide in American popular culture. In 1934, he led a ferocious and ultimately successful campaign to quash a film adaptation by MGM of Austrian writer Franz Werfel's Forty Days of Musa Dagh, a historical dramatization of an episode from the genocide.[5] He became the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in May 1944.[6] He held this last post until he died in Washington, D.C., of a heart attack in November of the same year.

In April 1946, a year after World War II had ended, his body was carried back to Istanbul aboard the USS Missouri[7] and buried in the garden of Sufi tekke, Özbekler Tekkesi [tr] in Sultantepe, Üsküdar.[8] near his shaykh grandfather İbrahim Edhem Efendi, who was once the head of the Tekke. (His two sons Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun also rest there.)[9]

When Ertegun died, there was not yet a mosque in Washington, D.C., at which his funeral could be held. The Islamic Center of Washington was built as a result.[citation needed]

He also had a daughter named Selma Göksel.[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Ottoman Ebru Marblers". Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b Erdal Şafak. "Ahmet Bey ve babası". Sabah. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  3. ^ "History of Turkish Embassy in London, England". Government of Turkey. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  4. ^ Main Jazz Day Events hosted by Turkey in Istanbul
  5. ^ Minasian, Edward. Musa Dagh (Nashville, TN: Cold Tree Press, 2007).
  6. ^ "Deans of the Diplomatic Corps". Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State. 1 March 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
  7. ^ Thomas A. Bryson, 'Tars, Turks, and Tankers: The Role of the United States Navy in the Middle East,' Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, NJ, and London, 1980, 90.
  8. ^ "Ertegün Özbekler Tekkesine gömülecek.. Peki bu TEKKE nedir, ne değildir?". Ensonhaber.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  9. ^ "Özbekler Tekkesi'nde hırsızlık | Haberand". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  10. ^ Greenfield, Robert (2012). The last sultan : the life and times of Ahmet Ertegun (1st ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. ISBN 1-4165-5840-3. OCLC 816041223.
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