Münir Ertegün

Mehmet Münir Ertegün
Ambassador of Turkey to Switzerland
In office 1925–1930
President	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Preceded by	Refik Birgen
Succeeded by	Cemal Hüsnü Taray
Ambassador of Turkey to France
In office 1930–1932
President	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Ambassador of Turkey to the United Kingdom
In office 1932–1934
President	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Preceded by	Ahmet Ferit Tek
Succeeded by	Ali Fethi Okyar
Ambassador of Turkey to the United States
In office 1934–1944
President	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, İsmet İnönü
Preceded by	Ahmet Muhtar Mollaoğlu
Succeeded by	Hüseyin Ragıp Baydur
Personal details
Born	Mehmet Münir Cemil 1883 Istanbul, Turkey
Died	1944 (aged 60–61) Washington, D.C., USA
Resting place	Sultantepe, Üsküdar, Istanbul
Nationality	Turkish
Children	Ahmet Ertegün (son), Nesuhi Ertegün (son), Selma Göksel (daughter)
Alma mater	Istanbul University
Profession	Diplomat

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

Born in Istanbul to a civil servant father, Mehmet Cemil Bey, and a mother Ayşe Hamide Hanım, who was a daughter of Sufi shaykh İbrahim Edhem Efendi, he studied law at Istanbul University and graduated in 1908. He was a close figure and aide to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk during the Turkish Independence War and the chief legal counsel of the Turkish delegation to the Treaty of Lausanne.

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) and the United States (1934–1944). He held this last post until he died in Washington, D.C. in 1944. In 1946, a year after World War II had ended, his body was carried back to Istanbul by the USS Missouri and buried in the garden of Sufi tekke, Özbekler Tekkesi in Sultantepe, Üsküdar near his shaykh grandfather İbrahim Edhem Efendi, who was once the head of the Tekke.

When Ertegün 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.

See also

• List of Turkish diplomats

External links

Persondata
Name	Ertegun, Munir
Alternative names	Mehmet Münir Ertegün
Short description	Turkish diplomat
Date of birth	1883
Place of birth	Istanbul, Turkey
Date of death	11 November 1944
Place of death	Washington, D.C., United States