President Ismet Inonu Preceded by Sukru Kaya Name Tevfik Aras Party Republican People's Party Resting place Asiyan Asri Cemetery | Preceded by Ali Fethi Okyar Full Name Tevfik Rustu Role Politician Succeeded by Rauf Orbay | |
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Prime Minister Ismet Inonu, Celal Bayar Born 1883
Canakkale, Ottoman Empire ( 1883 ) Political party Republican People's Party (CHP) Alma mater Beirut School of Medicine Died January 4, 1972, Istanbul, Turkey | ||
Tevfik Rüştü Aras - 1937
Tevfik Rustu Aras (1883 in Canakkale – January 5, 1972 in Istanbul) was a Turkish politician, serving as deputy and foreign minister of Turkey during the Ataturk era (1920-1939).
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Early years
He graduated from the medical school of Beirut. He served as a doctor in Izmir, Istanbul, and Thessaloniki (Turkish: Selanik ). He became a member of the Committee of Union and Progress, and during his membership he met Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
In 1918, he was a member of the high commission of health (Turkish: Yuksek Saglik Kurulu). At that time he married the journalist Evliyazade Makbule, who was the daughter of a wealthy family from Izmir.
Political career
The Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) opened in 1920. Aras was elected to the parliament from Mugla. In his first period as a Member of Parliament (MP), he was appointed to the Independence Court of Kastamonu. 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 with Ali Fuat Cebesoy, when Mr. Cebesoy was appointed as ambassador to Moscow. He served as MP for Izmir 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 March 4, 1925, he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the third Ismet Inonu government. He stayed in office by keeping his position in all the cabinets until Ataturk died. He implemented Ataturk's foreign policy, held good relations with neighbouring countries and opposition to hegemonic powers. He visited Russia three times at the invitation of Maxim Litvinov, the Foreign Minister of Russia. These visits took place in 1926 (Odessa), and in 1936 and 1937 (Moscow).
Aras was elected as the president of League of Nations during the Special Session of the Assembly Convened for the Purpose of Considering the Request of the Kingdom of Egypt for Admission to the League of Nations in Geneva, on May 26–May 27, 1937. He was appointed as ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1939 and stayed in London for three and a half years. He retired in 1943 and published some stories in the Istanbul press (especially in the newspaper Tan). He supported the establishment of the Democratic Party. 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" (Turkish: Lozan'in izlerinde 10 yil) 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 (Turkish: Goruslerim).
He died in on January 5, 1972 in Istanbul, and was laid to rest at the Asiyan Asri Cemetery.
Role in the Armenian Genocide
Tevfik Rustu Aras was the brother-in-law of Nazim Bey, one of the chief organizers of the Armenian genocide. Tevfik Rustu Aras became Inspector-General of Health Services and was given the task to destroy the bodies of Armenian victims of the genocide. 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 Rustu Aras was given six months to complete the task, after which he returned to Istanbul. 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 Rustu Aras has been instructed to do.