Behiç Erkin

Behiç Erkin
Behiç Erkin
Ambassador of Turkey to France
	In office; 1939–1943
President	İsmet İnönü
Ambassador of Turkey to Hungary
	In office; 1928–1939
President	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Minister of Public Works
	In office; January 14, 1926 – October 15, 1928
Prime Minister	İsmet İnönü
Preceded by	Süleyman Sırrı Gedikoğlu
Succeeded by	Recep Peker
Director General of the TCDD
	In office; December 1, 1921 – January 11, 1926
Succeeded by	Vasfi Tuna
Personal details
Born	Hakkı Behiç; 1876; Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died	November 11, 1961 (aged 84–85); Istanbul, Turkey
Resting place	Eskişehir
Nationality	Turkish
Alma mater	Ottoman Military Academy, Ottoman Military College
Occupation	Army officer, director general, government minister, ambassador, politician
Awards	Iron Cross 1st Class (Germany); Medal of Independence (Turkey)
Military service
Rank	Colonel
Battles/wars	World War I; Turkish War of Independence

Behiç Erkin (1876 in Constantinople,[1] Ottoman Empire – November 11, 1961 in Istanbul, Turkey) was a Turkish career officer, Armenian Genocide perpetrator,[2] first director (1920–1926) of the Turkish State Railways, nationalized under his auspices, statesman and diplomat of the Turkish Republic. He was Minister of Public Works, 1926–1928, and deputy for three terms; and an ambassador. He served as Turkey's ambassador to Budapest between 1928–1939, and to Paris and Vichy between August 1939-August 1943.

Although it has been claimed that Erkin rescued 20,000 Jews during the Holocaust, these claims are unsubstantiated. The film Turkish Passport was criticized for "attempts to whitewash a perpetrator of the Armenian genocide by painting him as a rescuer in the Holocaust".[2][3]

Early life

Behiç Erkin was born as Hakkı Behiç in 1876 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire.

Career

Behiç Erkin in the 1920s.

Starting in the early 1910s, Erkin was a close friend and early collaborator of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.[4] Mustafa Kemal and Colonel Behiç Bey (Erkin) played crucial roles in the success of the battles at the Dardanelles front, where both men commanded during World War I. Erkin earned a high reputation and the German Iron Cross 1st Class military decoration, which served him when he needed to impress Germans during the Occupation. He also played a foremost part in the Turkish War of Independence. He took the family name "Erkin" after Turkey's 1934 Law on Family Names was passed. His surname "Erkin," which means "free man" was personally suggested by Atatürk in honor of his ability to make objective decisions in the face of outside pressure.

During the Armenian Genocide, Erkin helped organize the deportation of Armenian railway workers.[2]

Mission in France

In 1939 then President İsmet İnönü hand-picked Erkin for the post of ambassador to France.

According to a census French authorities conducted under German Army direction in autumn 1940, 3,381 of a total of 113,467 Jews over age 15, residing in Paris and holding French nationality, were of Turkish origin. The total number of Turkish Jews were estimated at five thousand people if those under 15 were counted. Scholars have estimated possibly ten thousand Jews of Turkish origin for the whole of France at the time.[5]

Erkin received orders not to repatriate Turkish Jews in large numbers to safety in their home country, and, according to historian Marc David Baer, "played his part in preventing the vast majority of Turkish Jews in Nazi Europe to find safety".[2] There is only one verified account of a Turkish diplomat offering identity cards to non-Turkish Jews for humanitarian reasons. Erkin reported this "improper behavior" to the Turkish foreign ministry.[2]

Aged 67 in 1943 and having had his ambassadorial term extended three times, Erkin retired in August 1943 to return to İstanbul. In 1958 he completed his memoirs (published in 2010). Behiç Erkin died on November 11, 1961. At his wish, he was buried in a courtyard near a railway junction in the Eskişehir train station, where he had started his career four decades before.

Biographical accounts

Behiç Erkin during the First World War.

Erkin completed a 900-page memoir in 1958, published in 2010 by the Turkish Historical Society. His grandson used the memoir as the basis for his own research about his grandfather's life.[6] In 2007 Emir Kıvırcık, Erkin's grandson, published The Ambassador, an account of Erkin's tenure in France. Baer describes this book as "hagiography", and notes it was implicitly marketed for its utility in furthering Turkey's Armenian Genocide denial.[2] In The Road to the Front (Cepheye Giden Yol) (2008), Kıvırcık covered his grandfather Erkin's World War I years.

The efforts of Erkin in saving Turkish Jews have been greatly exaggerated. Historian Corinna Guttstadt found that the number of saved Jews was only 114, not in the thousands as claimed by other biographies. Furthermore, according to the same article, the number of Jews that have been identified by the German authorities as possible Turkish citizens was 3036, so the number of people saved by Erkin appears to be a small fraction of the total.[7][2]

Yad Vashem application

In April 2007, an Israeli association of Jews with origins in Turkey applied to have Erkin included among the "Righteous Among the Nations" in Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.[8] The applicants, principally Israelis with origins in Turkey, are seeking witnesses to help document their application.[9]

References

Caroline Finkel, Osman's Dream, (Basic Books, 2005), 57; "The city's Byzantine name, rendered in Turkish as Konstantiniyye...","Istanbul was only adopted as the city's official name in 1930..".
Baer, Marc D. (2020). Sultanic Saviors and Tolerant Turks: Writing Ottoman Jewish History, Denying the Armenian Genocide. Indiana University Press. pp. 203–205. ISBN 978-0-253-04542-3.
Uğur Ümit Üngör. "Üngör on Burak Arliel, 'The Turkish Passport' | H-Genocide | H-Net". networks.h-net.org. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
Andrew Mango (2002). Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. The Overlook Press. ISBN 1-58567-334-X.
Jacques Adler (1987). The Jews of Paris and the Final Solution. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504306-5.
Emin Çölaşan (16 February 2007). "Bir ibret belgesi ("An exemplary document")" (in Turkish). Hürriyet.
‘Türk Schindleri’ efsaneleri by Ayşe Hür, Taraf, December 16, 2007 "Legend of the turk Schindler". Archived from the original on 2014-08-14. Retrieved 2014-08-14. (in Turkish)
"L'ambassadeur de Turquie durant la Guerre postule à titre posthume au titre de Juste parmi les Nations ("The Ambassador of Turkey during the War is proposed for a posthumous title of the Righteous among the Nations")" (in French). Israel Valley Site Officiel de la Chambre de Commerce France Israël. 4 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
"İsrailli Türkler kurtarıcıları için tanık arıyorlar ("The Turks of Israel seek witnesses for their savior")" (in Turkish). Haber 7. 2008-08-12. Archived from the original on 2011-03-07.

Films

Turkish Passport (2011) www.theturkishpassport.com
Desperate Hours (2005).