Bekir Sami Bey (known as Bekir Sami Kunduh in modern Turkish sources; ; 1867 – 16 January 1933) was a Turkish

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Ossetia Ossetia ( , ; or , or , ) is an Ethnolinguistics, ethnolinguistic region on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, largely inhabited by the Ossetians. The Ossetian language is part of the Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian b ...

n origin. He served as the first

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, ...

of Turkey during 1920–1921.Biography on biyografi.net
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Biography

Early career

Bekir Sami was born in Saniba,

. He was a son of Musa Kunduh Pasha (Musa Kundukhov; (1818–1889)), a Tagaur Ossetian chieftain and major-general in the

Russian Imperial Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

, who then defected to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. He earned his Baccalaureate from

Galatasaray High School Galatasaray High School (, ), established in Istanbul in 1481, is the oldest and Selective school, highly selective high school in Turkey. It is also the second-oldest Turkish educational institution after Istanbul University, which was establi ...

and went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to study political science. He worked at the Turkish embassy at St. Petersburg and then was appointed as

Mutasarrıf Mutasarrif, mutesarrif, mutasarriff, or mutesarriff () was the title used in the Ottoman Empire and places like post-Ottoman Iraq for the governor of an administrative district in place of the usual sanjakbey. The Ottoman rank of mutasarrif was e ...

Amasya Amasya () is a city in northern Turkey, in the Black Sea Region. It was called Amaseia or Amasia in antiquity."Amasya" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol ...

. Later in his career he served successively as governor of Van,

Trabzon Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

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 ...

and

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

. His last appointment before the 30 October 1918

Armistice of Mudros The Armistice of Mudros () ended hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between Ottoman Turkey and the Allies of World War I. It was signed on 30 October 1918 by the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey and British Admiral Somerset ...

that ended the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies was as governor of Beirut.

Post-World War I

Shortly after the armistice, Bekir Sami became a leading member of the Karakol society, alongside other former influential members 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 ...

. Karakol was a secret Turkish nationalist organization formed in October or November 1918 to continue various aspects of the CUP's covert work, such as resistance to the Allied occupation, resistance to partition of Anatolia, and concealment of former CUP members accused of participation in 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 ...

. Summoned to Anatolia by Mustafa Kemal, Bekir Sami attended the

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

and

Sivas Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.İl Beledi ...

congresses (JulySeptember 1919), after which he joined the ranks of Turkish revolutionaries negotiating a united position with the Ottoman imperial government. Bekir Sami's name therefore appears as one of the signatories to the 22 October 1919 Amasya Protocol. One provision of the protocol was to hold fresh parliamentary elections, and in these Bekir Sami was elected to represent Amasya in the final Ottoman Chamber of Deputies which was seated in Istanbul on 12 January 1920. In the event, the new chamber only lasted barely two months. Allied forces occupied Istanbul on 16 March and the chamber went into recess. Three days later, Mustafa Kemal announced the establishment of the Ankara-based

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

. Bekir Sami was one of 70 nationalist deputies who moved to Ankara and took a seat as a deputy at the new assembly's first meeting on 23 April 1920. When Mustafa Kemal formed his first cabinet on 3 May 1920, Bekir Sami was named as the minister of foreign affairs. (After the 1923 founding of the Republic of Turkey, this cabinet was retrospectively designated as the republic's first, and Bekir Sami thereby became its first foreign minister). Representing Turkey, he led the nationalist government's delegation to 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 ...

Between 21 February and 12 March 1921 he led the Turkish delegation to the Conference of London. By this point in the post-war negotiations, a major sticking point was the trial and punishment of Turkish prisoners held by the British on the island of Malta. Previous post-war Ottoman governments, aiming to stave off aggressive territorial ambitions by the victorious allies, had felt a need to acquiesce to the Allies' pressure for an international court or foreign power to try Turks accused of wartime crimes. Nationalist opinion in Turkey rejected this trade-off and Bekir Sami communicated to the Allies that Turkey would not accept foreign trials for the prisoners in Malta. As reported by the British Foreign Secretary

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...

, Bekir Sami:

contrasted the situation of the German war crimes suspects with that of the Turkish suspects. ... He tried to reassure me that they are ready to punish those esponsible for thecrimes ... then he said this task must be left to his government.

Despite Bekir Sami's advocacy, the version of the London Agreement drafted by the British required Turkey to release all British prisoners, while Britain retained the right to detain and try anyone involved in massacres of Armenians or who had attacked British soldiers. The nationalist assembly viewed the London Agreement as a violation of Turkish sovereignty and Bekir Sami as having acted beyond the authority that the government had given him. After his return to Ankara, he resigned his office as foreign minister on 8 May 1921. On 17 September 1924 he was one of the founders of the Progressive Republican Party of Turkey, at the request of Mustafa Kemal. The party only lasted nine months until it was ordered dissolved on 5 June 1925 following the Sheikh Said rebellion. When there was an attempt on Mustafa Kemal's life 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 ...

in 1926, Bekir Sami was among many who were arrested. He was acquitted at trial. Bekir Sami died in

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 ...

on 16 January 1933. Although he did not have a surname during his lifetime, the Surname Law was adopted the year after his death, and his family adopted the surname Kunduh.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kunduh, Bekir Sami 1867 births 1933 deaths Ministers of foreign affairs of Turkey Ossetian politicians Galatasaray High School alumni Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire