Zeki Kuneralp - Biography

Biography

Born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire in October 1914, Kuneralp was the second son of Ali Kemal Bey, the liberal Anglophile Turkish journalist, writer, and politician, by his second wife, Sabiha Hanim. After the lynching of his father in November 1922 by a nationalist mob, his mother took the family into exile in Switzerland, where he received a Swiss education, going all the way up to a Law doctorate in 1938.

Special permission for Kuneralp to enter the Turkish foreign ministry was granted by President İsmet İnönü. After entering the ministry in 1942, Kuneralp went on to become one of the most brilliant diplomats of his generation, eventually serving two terms as Secretary-General (Permanent Undersecretary) in the 1960s. Earlier in his career, he was posted to Bucharest, Prague, Paris, and Turkey's NATO Delegation. A strong believer in Turkish-Greek friendship, Kuneralp worked hard but unsuccessfully to repair the damage done to Turkish-Greek relations by the rift over Cyprus between 1954 and 1964.

He served as ambassador to London from 1964 to 1966 and again from 1969 to 1972. During the later stages of his diplomat career, Kuneralp was afflicted by progressive multiple sclerosis, which left him unable to walk without support.

In 1978, while Kuneralp was serving as ambassador in Madrid, three gunmen opened fire on his car. The ambassador's wife, Necla Kuneralp, and her brother, retired Ambassador Beşir Balcıoğlu, lost their lives in the attack. Responsibility was claimed by a militant Armenian group, variously named as ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) or the Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide. The attackers opened fire on Balcioglu, who was using crutches, apparently supposing him to be Kuneralp because of this. The attack was one of a series of assassinations of Turkish diplomats and officials during the 1970s and 1980s. It was the first in the series, in which a non-Turk (Zeki Kuneralp's Spanish driver, Antonio Torres) also lost their life.

Despite this tragedy, Zeki’s charm, intellectual distinction and energy, as well as his affection for his friends remained as strong as ever. He had a lively and surprisingly unorthodox and original mind and during his retirement wrote several books, including an edited version of his father's autobiography and an autobiography of his own, as well as works on recent aspects of Turkish diplomatic history. His autobiography was translated into English and appeared under the title "Just a Diplomat". He died in Istanbul of progressive multiple sclerosis.

An article, "Ambassador Extraordinary", describing his life and personality, was published after his death in Number 16 of the magazine Cornucopia, 1998, as well as a short volume of memoirs by his British and Turkish friends giving details of his career. This was published in 1998 by the Isis Press in Istanbul as Zeki Kuneralp 1914–1998: A Tribute by Friends and Family. One of his British friends, Sir Bernard Burrows, a former ambassador to Ankara, said that Kuneralp could best be described as a saint, adding that this was an unusual quality in a diplomat. Kuneralp always retained his affection for Switzerland, the country of his upbringing, and spoke the Swiss dialect of German fluently, sometimes startling groups of Swiss visitors.

The former British Conservative Member of Parliament and current Mayor of London and journalist Boris Johnson is Kuneralp's great nephew.