Tevfik Rüştü Aras (11 February 1883 – 5 January 1972) was a
Turkish politician, serving as deputy and foreign minister of
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 ...
during the
Atatürk era (1923–1938).
Early years
Aras was born in 1883 in
Çanakkale
Çanakkale is a city and seaport in Turkey on the southern shore of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. It is the seat of Çanakkale Province and Çanakkale District.[Beirut
Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...]
. He served as a doctor in
İzmir
İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...
, Istanbul, and
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
( ). He became a member of the
Committee of Union and Progress
The Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP, also translated as the Society of Union and Progress; , French language, French: ''Union et Progrès'') was a revolutionary group, secret society, and political party, active between 1889 and 1926 ...
, and during his membership he met Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
In 1918, he was a member of the high commission of health (). At that time he married the journalist Evliyazade Makbule, who was the daughter of a wealthy family from İzmir.
Political career
The
Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) was inaugurated in 1920 and Aras was elected to the parliament from
MuÄŸla. In his first period as a
Member of Parliament (MP), he was appointed to the
Independence Court of
Kastamonu
Kastamonu, formerly Kastamone/Castamone () and Kastamon/Castamon (), is a city in northern Turkey. It is the seat of Kastamonu Province and Kastamonu District. . 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
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
with
Ali Fuat Cebesoy, when Mr. Cebesoy was appointed as ambassador to
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 ...
. He served as MP for İzmir 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 4 March 1925, he was 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, ...
in the third
İsmet İnönü
Mustafa İsmet İnönü (24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish politician and military officer who served as the second List of Presidents of Turkey, president of Turkey from 1938 to 1950, and as its Prime Minister of Turkey, pr ...
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
Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one state over other states, either regional or global.
In Ancient Greece (ca. 8th BC – AD 6th c.), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' ...
powers. He visited Russia three times at the invitation of
Maxim Litvinov
Maxim Maximovich Litvinov (; born Meir Henoch Wallach-Finkelstein; 17 July 1876 – 31 December 1951) was a Russian Empire, Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet Union, Soviet statesman and diplomat who served as Ministry of Foreign Aff ...
, the
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. These visits took place in 1926 (
Odessa
ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
), and in 1936 and 1937 (Moscow).
In 1933, he met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Mushanov in
Plovdiv
Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...
, because of the
incident in Razgrad, where the Turkish cemetery was attacked. Aras claimed that the situation was stabilized and that the incident was an attempted provocation.
Aras was elected as the president of
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
during the Special Session of the Assembly Convened for the Purpose of Considering the Request of the Kingdom of
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
for Admission to the League of Nations in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
, on 26–27 May 1937.
He was removed from his position as Foreign Minister right after Ataturk's passing away by the new Head of Republic Ismet Inonu. Aras and Inonu had different opinions in foreign affairs especially in Soviet relations, Inonu believed that Aras was more loyal to Ataturk rather than the government and conducting foreign affairs directly with him and finally Inonu had suspected Aras for lobbying against him before the Head of Republic election. This conflict prompted Aras to take his place in the opposition to Inonu. He supported the establishment of the
Democratic Party (DP), but was soon dismissed by the DP following his attempt to include socialist ideas into the party program.
He advocated for a conciliatory policy towards the Soviet Union to which the DP did not agree to.
He then was also involved in the establishment of the New Turkey Party in 1961.
Aras was appointed ambassador to the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
in 1939 since he was removed and stayed in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
for three and a half years. He retired in 1943 and published some stories in the Istanbul press (especially in the newspaper Tan). 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" () 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'' ().
He died on 5 January 1972 in İstanbul, and was laid to rest at the
AÅŸiyan Asri Cemetery.
Role in the Armenian genocide
Tevfik Rüştü Aras was the brother-in-law of
Nazim Bey, one of the chief organizers of the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...
. Tevfik Rüştü Aras became Inspector-General of Health Services and was given the task to destroy the bodies of victims.
He organized the disposal of Armenian corpses with thousands of kilos of lime over six months. The bodies were dumped into wells which were then filled with lime and sealed with soil.
Tevfik Rüştü Aras was given six months to complete the task, after which he returned to
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
. H.W. Glockner, a British
POW, wrote in his memoirs that he had seen the bodies of murdered Armenians in
Urfa thrown into large ditches and covered with lime, just as Tevfik Rüştü Aras has been instructed to do.
In 1926, following the passage of the 'Settlement Law' designed to break up Kurdish majority areas in the eastern provinces, Aras justified the deportations to the British administrator of Iraq,
Sir Henry Dobbs. Dobbs recorded how Aras said that the government was 'determined to clear the
Kurds
Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...
out of their valleys, the richest part of Turkey to-day, and to settle Turkish peasants there,' adding that the Kurds 'were to be treated as were the Armenians.' Aras apparently justified this argument: 'The
Kurds
Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...
would for many generations be incapable of self-government ... He always said long before the war that Turkey must get rid of the
Albanians
The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...
,
Bulgarians
Bulgarians (, ) are a nation and South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and its neighbouring region, who share a common Bulgarian ancestry, culture, history and language. They form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, ...
and
Arabs
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...
, and must become more homogeneous.'
Personal life
He had a daughter from his marriage to Evliyazade Makbule called Emel, who later married
Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, the minister of foreign affairs from 1957 to 1960.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aras, Tevfik Rustu
1883 births
1972 deaths
20th-century Turkish diplomats
20th-century Turkish physicians
Ministers of foreign affairs of Turkey
Turkish chief executives
Turkish columnists
Ambassadors of Turkey to the United Kingdom
Committee of Union and Progress politicians
Communist Party of Turkey (historical) politicians
Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians
People from Çanakkale
Turks from the Ottoman Empire
Burials at AÅŸiyan Asri Cemetery
Deputies of İzmir
Armenian genocide perpetrators
Members of the 4th government of Turkey
Members of the 5th government of Turkey
Members of the 6th government of Turkey
Members of the 9th government of Turkey
Presidents of the Assembly of the League of Nations