Non‐Career Ambassador Appointments: Transformations in Turkish Diplomacy during the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

During the early years of the Turkish Republic, the establishment of foreign missions, the assignment of new diplomats to these missions as well as the inheritance of experiences, diplomats, buildings and other assets from the Ottoman Empire were matters of major political concern. While the existing literature often attributes non‐career ambassador appointments to a shortage of diplomats, this article offers a different perspective. It argues that such appointments were not driven by necessity but, largely, were made on the basis of ideology and loyalty. Focusing on the 1920s and 1930s, and hence the years associated with the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), the article argues that the young state aimed both to establish a new cadre of diplomats loyal to the republic and to legitimate itself in international society by ensuring some continuity with the old, Ottoman diplomatic order. As a whole, the article sheds light on the dilemmas of a new, revolutionary state attempting to insert itself into an established international society.