Berç Türker (also known as Berç Türker Keresteci or Berç Keresteciyan Türker; or Berj Kerestejian, hy, Պերճ Քերեստեջյան) (1870–1949) was an Ottoman- Turkish bank executive and politician of ethnic

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

origin.

Early life

Türker was born in 1870 in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, the capital of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, into an

family. His father Mgrdich Kerestejian, manager of the customs office of Constantinople, died when he was five years old. His unmarried uncle

Bedros Keresteciyan Bedros Keresteciyan ( hy, Պետրոս Քերեսթեճեան, 1840 – 27 February 1909) was an Ottoman Armenian linguist, journalist, translator, and writer of the first etymology dictionary of the Turkish language.Silvart Malhasyan, "İstanbul ...

, manager at the External Communications Office of the

Sublime Porte The Sublime Porte, also known as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte ( ota, باب عالی, Bāb-ı Ālī or ''Babıali'', from ar, باب, bāb, gate and , , ), was a synecdoche for the central government of the Ottoman Empire. History The nam ...

up to 1890 and manager of the Translation Office of the Finance Ministry until his death in 1909, a

hyperpolyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

in 10 languages and author of the

etymological Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words and ...

dictionary of the

Turkish language Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...

, raised him and greatly influenced his formation. A specialist in financial and economic affairs, Bedros Keresteciyan taught his nephew in these fields. Berç first attended the prestigious

Galatasaray High School Galatasaray High School ( tr, Galatasaray Lisesi, french: Lycée de Galatasaray), established in what was then Constantinople and is now Istanbul, in 1481, is the oldest high school in Turkey. It is also the second-oldest Turkish educational in ...

, a public school which provided education in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

, later transferring to

Robert College The American Robert College of Istanbul ( tr, İstanbul Özel Amerikan Robert Lisesi or ), often shortened to Robert, or RC, is a Selective school, highly selective, Independent school, independent, mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary ...

, an American quasi-missionary private school.

Professional career

After his education at Robert College, Berç Keresteciyan was employed by the Finance Ministry, where he served for two years. Then, his uncle appointed him to the

Ottoman Bank The Ottoman Bank ( tr, Osmanlı Bankası), known from 1863 to 1925 as the Imperial Ottoman Bank (french: Banque Impériale Ottomane, ota, بانق عثمانی شاهانه) and correspondingly referred to by its French acronym BIO, was a bank ...

, an institution with half European (English and French) and half Ottoman in character and cosmopolitan personnel. After the

raid Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...

of August 26, 1896 carried out by the

Armenian Revolutionary Federation The Armenian Revolutionary Federation ( hy, Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցութիւն, ՀՅԴ ( classical spelling), abbr. ARF or ARF-D) also known as Dashnaktsutyun (collectively referred to as Dashnaks for short), is an Armenian ...

, Berç Keresteciyan was sent by his European supervisors as precaution to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

as branch manager along with some other non-Muslim middle level officials. He worked also in the

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

branch. As the

Turkish Red Crescent Turkish Red Crescent (Turkish: ''Türk Kızılay'' (official) or ''Kızılay'' (for short)) is the largest humanitarian organization in Turkey and is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The organization was founded i ...

( ota, Osmanlı Hilal-i Ahmer Cemiyeti) was re-established for the third and last time in 1911, Berç Keresteciyan was a co-founder, became the only non-Muslim member of the executive committee and later vice chairman of the humanitarian institution. With the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the participation of the Ottoman Empire in the war, the Bank's officials of British and French nationality fell in the position of citizens of hostile countries. The Ottomans threatened the Bank with confiscation, and the general manager and his deputy had to leave their posts and the country until the end of the war. The administration was taken over by non-Muslim Ottomans. Berç Keresteciyan was among them. He was deputy general manager and later became general manager of the Bank. He served for a period as a Deputy at the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

, the lower house of the

Ottoman Parliament The General Assembly ( tr, Meclis-i Umumî (French romanization: "Medjliss Oumoumi" ) or ''Genel Parlamento''; french: Assemblée Générale) was the first attempt at representative democracy by the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire. Als ...

Turkish War of Independence

anecdote An anecdote is "a story with a point", such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Occasionally humorous ...

is being told about his contribution to save the life of

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...

, as he informed Atatürk's lawyer about a British plot to sink his ship SS ''Bandırma'' in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

, on which Atatürk left Constantinople (today-

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

) in 1919 to initiate the

Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

. He was awarded the white stripe Medal of Independence after the war. In 1923, Berç Keresteciyan sent a telegram to Atatürk in his capacity as the honorary president of the Turco-Armenian Friendship Association and a member of the secular council of the Armenian Patriarchate, confirming the loyalty and the support of his community to the political authority of the government in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

. Following the surname reform on June 21, 1934, Atatürk gave Berç Keresteciyan the family name Türker ( Turkish for ''Turk man'') for his patriotism.

Political career

Encouraged and supported by Atatürk, he run as an independent candidate for a deputy seat from

Afyonkarahisar Afyonkarahisar (, tr, afyon "poppy, opium", ''kara'' "black", ''hisar'' "fortress") is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyon Province. Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, south-west of Ankara along t ...

at the 1935 general elections and became a member of the

Turkish Grand National Assembly The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Const ...

on March 7, 1935 as the first Armenian and one of the four non-Muslims in total. The same day, he also became a member of the economic commission of the parliament thanks to his expertise. He repeated his membership of the parliament twice more after the general elections in 1939 and 1943. During his political career in the parliament, Berç Türker Keresteciyan made significant contributions to issues of general political, economic, social and international developments. After his retirement in 1947, he lived at

Büyükada Büyükada ( el, Πρίγκηπος or Πρίγκιπος, rendered ''Prinkipos'' or ''Prinkipo''), meaning "Big Island" in Turkish, is the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul, with an area of about . It is offic ...

, Istanbul. Berç Türker Keresteciyan died in Istanbul, on 27 July 1949, and interred on 29 July in the same city.

References

External links

* Semi Ertan,
An Armenian at the Turkish parliament in the early republican period: Berç Türker-Keresteciyan, 1870-1949
', thesis, Sabancı University, İstanbul, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Turker Keresteciyan, Berc 1949 deaths 1870 births Businesspeople from Istanbul Armenians from the Ottoman Empire Turkish people of Armenian descent Deputies of Afyonkarahisar Turkish bankers Galatasaray High School alumni Robert College alumni Ethnic Armenian politicians Armenian bankers Members of the 7th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 6th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 8th Parliament of Turkey