Tevfik Rüştü Aras
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Tevfik Rüştü Aras (1883, Çanakkale – January 5, 1972 Istanbul) was a Turkish politician, serving as deputy and foreign minister of Turkey during the Atatürk era (1920-1939).
Early years
He graduated from the medical school of Beirut. He served as a doctor in Izmir, Istanbul, and Thessaloniki (Turkish: Selanik ). He became a member of the Committee of Union and Progress, and during his membership he met Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
During is tenure as Inspector-General of Health Services and in the mark of the Armenian Genocide, Rüştü organized the disposal of Armenian corpses with thousands of kilos of lime over the period of six months.
In 1918, he was a member of the high commission of health (Turkish: Yüksek Sağlık Kurulu). At that time he married the journalist Evliyazade Makbule, who was the daughter of a wealthy family from Izmır.
Political career
The Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) opened in 1920. Aras was elected to the parliament from Muğla. In his first period as a Member of Parliament (MP), he was appointed to the Independence Court of Kastamonu. In the autumn of 1920, he became one of the founders of the Communist Party of Turkey. Tevfik Rustu visited the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with Ali Fuat Cebesoy, when Mr. Cebesoy was appointed as ambassador to Moscow. He served as MP for Izmir in the second, third, fourth and fifth periods of TGNA, between 1923 and 1939.
When the Law on the Maintenance of Order was effected on March 4, 1925, he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the third İsmet İnönü government. He stayed in office by keeping his position in all the cabinets until Atatürk died. He implemented Atatürk's foreign policy, held good relations with neighbouring countries and opposition to hegemonic powers. He visited Russia three times at the invitation of Maxim Litvinov, the Foreign Minister of Russia. These visits took place in 1926 (Odessa), and in 1936 and 1937 (Moscow).
Aras was elected as the president of League of Nations during the Special Session of the Assembly Convened for the Purpose of Considering the Request of the Kingdom of Egypt for Admission to the League of Nations in Geneva, on May 26–May 27, 1937. [1] He was appointed as ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1939 and stayed in London for three and a half years. He retired in 1943 and published some stories in the Istanbul press (especially in the newspaper Tan). He supported the establishment of the Democratic Party. He took office as chairman of the board of Turkiye Is Bankasi, a Turkish Bank.
The speeches he gave during his ministerial period were collected in a book called "10 Years in Pursuit of Lausanne" (Turkish: Lozan'ın izlerinde 10 yıl) by Mr. Numan Menemencioglu in 1937. He also collected his stories (published in the daily press between 1945-63) into a book called My Views (Turkish: Görüşlerim). He died in 1972 in İstanbul.[2]
References
- ^ "His Presidency session" (HTML). Indiana University. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
- ^ "kimkimdir" (HTML). Kim Kimdir ( Turkish ). Retrieved 2008-12-17.
