Aydın Yeğen

Aydın Yeğen served in the Washington embassy before briefly heading it as chargé d’affaires. American records identify him as a newly arrived counselor in January 1972, when he joined Ambassador Melih Esenbel and Foreign Minister Ümit Haluk Bayülken in discussions with Secretary of State William Rogers about defense assistance. ¹

In July 1972, while acting as chargé, Yeğen conveyed Ankara’s refusal to admit Archbishop Iakovos for the funeral of the Ecumenical Patriarch. He explained that other Orthodox representatives remained welcome and reported his government’s objections to American comments about the consequences of excluding Iakovos. ²

Yeğen again headed the embassy during Esenbel’s absence in 1974–75. An April 1975 American memorandum lists him as chargé at a luncheon for CENTO’s secretary-general. His later ambassadorships included Khartoum from 1978 to 1982 and Madrid from 1994 to 1996, as recorded by the respective Turkish embassies. ^{3, 4, 5, 6}

He also translated Yrjö Raevuori’s study of Sadri Maksudi and Turkish–Finnish relations into Turkish. The 1966 edition is catalogued as a forty page publication of the Turkish Culture Research Institute. ⁷