Mehmet Münir Ertegün

Mehmet Münir Ertegün was born in Istanbul and trained as a lawyer. He entered the Ottoman Foreign Ministry’s legal service in 1909 and worked on international negotiations, including the Brest-Litovsk talks. Sent to Ankara with an Istanbul government delegation in December 1920, he remained with the nationalist government and became one of its legal advisers. He took part in the Lausanne negotiations and later served in Bern, Paris, and London before moving to Washington in 1934. ^{1, 6}

His Washington work included an attempt to prevent Hollywood from adapting Franz Werfel’s novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, which depicted Armenian resistance during the genocide. Historian David Welky’s study of State Department and film industry records documents Ertegün’s approaches to American officials and MGM in 1934–35. He demanded that the project be stopped and warned MGM that Turkey would bar its other films if production went ahead. This campaign formed part of Ankara’s effort to control representations of the Armenian past abroad. ²

During the Second World War, Ertegün explained Turkey’s policy of remaining outside the fighting while maintaining relations with Britain. On 20 June 1941 he told Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles that the new Turkish-German treaty did not override Turkey’s obligations to Britain and that Turkish territory would not be used against the British. Welles recorded his skepticism about the agreement. ³

Ertegün also negotiated practical questions of American assistance. In March 1943 Dean Acheson gave him a draft lend-lease agreement. The ambassador welcomed a more definite arrangement after what he described as changing and uncertain procedures since 1941, and connected the agreement with prospects for international cooperation after the war. ⁴

The ambassador’s family helped make the residence an unusual meeting place in segregated Washington. His sons Ahmet and Nasuhi invited Black and white jazz musicians and listeners to gatherings there. ⁵

Ertegün died in Washington on 11 November 1944. His body was temporarily placed at Arlington before being carried to Istanbul aboard the USS Missouri in 1946. ^{1, 5}