Aarno Armas Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen (9 December 1885,

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

– 8 June 1951, Helsinki) was a Finnish politician, Envoy and

freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...

. He graduated as

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and received the title varatuomari in 1915. After the Finnish independence in 1917, Yrjö-Koskinen served under the Ministry for Foreign Affairs as Chief of political division from 1924 and Chief of staff from 1929. He worked as an

Envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of Diplomatic rank#Special envoy, diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an au ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

between 1 January 1931 and 8 April 1940. Yrjö-Koskinen also served as the

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

between 21 March 1931 and 15 December 1932. During his ministry Yrjö-Koskinen signed on behalf of Finland the

Soviet–Finnish Non-Aggression Pact The Soviet–Finnish Non-Aggression Pact was a non-aggression pact that was signed in 1932 by representatives of the Soviet Union and Finland and updated on 7 April 1934. The pact was unilaterally renounced by the Soviet Union in 1939 after it ...

with the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. At beginning of the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

he moved from Moscow to the Finnish embassy in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. Yrjö-Koskinen served in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

till 1950, and yet a small time in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Yrjö-Koskinen's father was the Finnish senator Yrjö Yrjö-Koskinen and grandfather was senator and historian Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen.

References

1885 births 1951 deaths Politicians from Helsinki Politicians from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) 19th-century Finnish nobility National Coalition Party politicians Ministers for foreign affairs of Finland University of Helsinki alumni 20th-century Finnish diplomats Ambassadors of Finland to Turkey 20th-century Finnish nobility {{NationalCoalition-politician-stub