Feridun Cemal Erkin

Feridun Cemal Erkin was born in Istanbul in 1899 and studied at Galatasaray and the Paris law faculty. His early work included the Ottoman Public Debt Administration and the Turkish delegation to the mixed population exchange commission. Diplomatic assignments in London and Berlin preceded senior posts in Ankara and an ambassadorship in Rome. ¹

Appointed to Washington in 1948, Erkin pressed for a formal American security commitment. After Türkiye’s initial effort to enter NATO failed, he proposed in January 1951 that the United States join the 1939 British–French–Turkish mutual assistance treaty. ²

As accession approached, Erkin also contested proposals that might divide Turkish territory between separate military commands. In November 1951 he told Assistant Secretary George McGhee that Ankara wanted the whole country under the Supreme Allied Commander Europe. McGhee reassured him that Türkiye would enter with full and equal rights and that command arrangements would be discussed before a final decision. ³

Erkin later represented Türkiye in Madrid, Paris, and London, and served as foreign minister from 1962 to 1965. His published recollections, Dışişlerinde 34 Yıl, include substantial volumes on the Washington ambassadorship as well as his later European postings. ^{1, 4}