Munir Ertegün

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title: "Munir Ertegün" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1883-births", "1944-deaths", "diplomats-from-istanbul", "lawyers-from-istanbul", "istanbul-university-faculty-of-law-alumni", "ambassadors-of-turkey-to-the-united-kingdom", "ambassadors-of-turkey-to-the-united-states", "deans-of-the-diplomatic-corps-to-the-united-states", "ambassadors-of-turkey-to-france", "ambassadors-of-turkey-to-switzerland", "20th-century-turkish-diplomats", "20th-century-turkish-lawyers"] description: "Turkish diplomat (1883–1944)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munir_Ertegün" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Turkish diplomat (1883–1944) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Münir Ertegün
image	Münir Ertegün.jpg
caption	Münir Ertegün in 1942
office	2nd Ambassador of Turkey to the United States
term_start	1934
predecessor	Ahmet Muhtar Mollaoğlu
office1	4th Ambassador of Turkey to the United Kingdom
term_start1	1932
term_end1	1934
predecessor1	Ahmet Ferit Tek
successor1	Ali Fethi Okyar
birth_name	Mehmet Münir Cemil
birth_date	1883
birth_place	Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
death_date
death_place	Washington, DC, US
spouse
children	3, including Ahmet and Nesuhi
education	Istanbul University (Law)
occupation
termend	1944
term_start2	1930
term_end2	1932
term_start3	1925
term_end3	1930
office2	2nd Ambassador of Turkey to France
office3	Ambassador of Turkey to Switzerland
successor	Orhan Halit Erol
successor2	Behiç Erkin
successor3	Cemal Hüsnü Taray
predecessor2	Fethi Okyar
predecessor3	Refik Birgen
president
president1	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
president2	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
president3	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
resting_place	Sultantepe, Üsküdar, Istanbul
::

| name = Münir Ertegün | honorific_suffix = | image = Münir Ertegün.jpg | caption = Münir Ertegün in 1942 | office = 2nd Ambassador of Turkey to the United States | term_start = 1934 | predecessor = Ahmet Muhtar Mollaoğlu | office1 = 4th Ambassador of Turkey to the United Kingdom | deputy1 = | term_start1 = 1932 | term_end1 = 1934 | predecessor1 = Ahmet Ferit Tek | successor1 = Ali Fethi Okyar | birth_name = Mehmet Münir Cemil | birth_date = 1883 | birth_place = Constantinople, Ottoman Empire | death_date = | death_place = Washington, DC, US | party = | otherparty = | spouse = | partner = | children = 3, including Ahmet and Nesuhi | education = Istanbul University (Law) | occupation = | signature = | website = | order = | termend = 1944 | term_start2 = 1930 | term_end2 = 1932 | term_start3 = 1925 | term_end3 = 1930 | office2 = 2nd Ambassador of Turkey to France | office3 = Ambassador of Turkey to Switzerland | successor = Orhan Halit Erol | successor2 = Behiç Erkin | successor3 = Cemal Hüsnü Taray | predecessor2 = Fethi Okyar | predecessor3 = Refik Birgen | president = | president1 = Mustafa Kemal Atatürk | president2 = Mustafa Kemal Atatürk | president3 = Mustafa Kemal Atatürk | resting_place = Sultantepe, Üsküdar, Istanbul

Mehmet 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. Ertegün married Emine Hayrünnisa Rüstem in 1917 and the couple had three children, two of whom were Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegün, the brothers who founded Atlantic Records and became iconic figures in the American music industry.

Life and career

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/The_Turkish_Ambassador_to_Washington,_M._Ertegün_and_his_family.jpg" caption="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" alt=""] ::

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, 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.{{cite web|title=Ahmet Bey ve babası |url=http://www.sabah.com.tr/Ekler/Pazar/Yazarlar/safak/2006/07/09/Ahmet_Bey_ve_babasi|author=Erdal Şafak|work=Sabah|access-date=2016-08-29|df=dmy-all}} 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. 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){{cite web|title=History of Turkish Embassy in London, England|url=http://london.emb.mfa.gov.tr/MissionChiefHistory.aspx |publisher=Government of Turkey|access-date=29 April 2012}} and the United States (1934–1944).

As the Republic's ambassador to Washington, Ertegün 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. Ertegün 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. He became the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in May 1944. 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 and buried in the garden of Sufi tekke, in Sultantepe, Üsküdar. near his shaykh grandfather İbrahim Edhem Efendi, who was once the head of the Tekke. (His two sons Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegün also rest there.)

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.

He also had a daughter named Selma Göksel.

References

References

1. "Ottoman Ebru Marblers".
2. [http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/international-jazz-day-2013/#sthash.Lt9TAZYT.dpuf Main Jazz Day Events hosted by Turkey in Istanbul]
3. Minasian, Edward. ''Musa Dagh'' (Nashville, TN: Cold Tree Press, 2007).
4. (1 March 2013). "Deans of the Diplomatic Corps". [[Bureau of Public Affairs]], [[U.S. Department of State]].
5. 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.
6. "Ertegün Özbekler Tekkesine gömülecek.. Peki bu TEKKE nedir, ne değildir?". Ensonhaber.com.
7. "Özbekler Tekkesi'nde hırsızlık | Haberand".
8. Greenfield, Robert. (2012). "The last sultan : the life and times of Ahmet Ertegun". Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

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