(Osman Öndeş. Bin Renk Bir Ömür: Sefire Emine Esenbel’in Anıları. Istanbul: Remzi Kitabevi, 2004.)
Diplomat memoirs are always fun to read. They meet with famous historical personalities, and they witness historical events. Because of their education and unique lifestyles, they are usually colorful characters which make their memoirs more fun. Yet, more interestingly, they live and work at the liminalities of the state, its organization, and official ideology. Like military outposts at the border, a diplomatic mission is located at the far end of the state organization. Diplomats work at this borderline and operate between outside and inside of the state. This liminality makes diplomat memoirs more interesting as they show how a state’s policies, interests, identity, and ideology are constantly tested by the external world, as well as power struggles in their home capital from where they are usually far away.
Bin Renk Bir Ömür: Sefire Emine Esenbel’in Anıları (A Lifetime in a Thousand Colors: Memoirs of Ambassadress Emine Esenbel), which was authored by Osman Öndeş, is one of those diplomat memoirs that tells the story of a professional career at the liminalities of the Turkish state. Although Emine Esenbel was not a professional diplomat, she performed diplomatduties as Melih Esenbel’s spouse. Melih Esenbel is one of the prominent figures in the history of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as Turkish envoy in Tokyo and Washington. He was also Foreign Minister for a short period of time in 1974-75. Using her late husband’s notes, Emine Esenbel tells her own story of life and diplomacy.
Esenbel’s memoirs have three major themes. First, it tells how an elite Ottoman family, who was close to Abdulhamid II adapted to the Republican Turkey. Esenbel frequently told her readers how her family was known as famous sailors. In fact, her grandfather was Abdulhamid II’s Chief of General Staff. Naturally, Esenbel’s family was an aristocratic Ottoman family with a wide network and large estates. Nevertheless, the family had to adapt deep political, social, and economic transformation. The Sultan was overthrown, and the empire underwent a series of exhaustive wars, including World War I. In 1923, Mustafa Kemal, an Ottoman pasha, and his aides founded a republic and ended the Ottoman monarchy. Old Ottoman families, like Esenbel’s, took part in the foundation of this new state.
Esenbel’s memoirs also provide a window into the life of corps diplomatique in Vichy France. The Esenbel family came to Paris in 1939 on the eve of the war. Turkey was neutral during World War II and did not declare war on Nazi Germany until 1945. Esenbel tells Turkish diplomats' lives under war conditions as well as how they contribute to the policy-making in Ankara. Esenbel describes her husband as a skillful diplomat who collected valuable intelligence and protected the small Turkish community under an incompetent ambassador in Paris. Melih Esenbel even received a commendation from Ankara. Nevertheless, these achievements could not protect Esenbel from the crushing wheels of Turkish politics.
During their tough years in France, a friendship develops between Esenbel and Fatin Rüştü Zorlu. Zorlu was going to be Democrat Party’s Foreign Minister and be hanged along with Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan by the military regime after the 1960 coup. In fact, coming from another Ottoman aristocratic family, Zorlu had a glittering career. Alongside being a good diplomat, Zorlu got married to the daughter of Tevfik Rüştü Aras, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s Foreign Minister. Ataturk himself performed the marriage ceremony in Dolmabahce Palace. Nevertheless, none of these could save Zorlu from the gallows. The military regime accused Zorlu of organizing the September 1955 pogroms against the Greeks in Istanbul.
When Esenbels came to Paris, Zorlu was an experienced diplomat in the mission. Since the ambassador was incompetent (Esenbel told so), it was up to Zorlu to play a leadership role. Esenbel depicts Zorlu as a real diplomat who knew the intricacies of diplomacy and looked after his staff. Zorlu seemingly impressed his young colleague, Melih. On top of that, given they were a part of a small Turkish diplomatic community in France, Esenbel family became a close companion to Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and his wife, Emel Zorlu.
As Zorlu became a shining star in the Ministry during the Democrat Party years and became Minister, it also positively reflected upon Melih’s career. He became the Turkish envoy in Washington. Given the Turkish bureaucracy’s culture of cliques, it is fair to assume he was known as a member of the Zorlu’s team in the Ministry. Nevertheless, the tables turned with the 1960 military coup that overthrew the Democrat Party. The new administration in the Ministry withdrew him from Washington. Until Melih’s name was cleared by the military regime, Esenbels were outcasts in Ankara. The new elites not only distanced him but also punished his family too. Esenbel also tells how the bureaucracy pivoted to the new power holders. Indeed, the bureaucracy’s attempt to curry favor with the military regime hurt Esenbels and made them ‘inferiors’ in the new regime.
As time passed on, the new regime vetted Melih Esenbel and he returned to his successful career in the Ministry. Yet, things were different for Zorlu. The power politics sacrificed him. His role in the September 1955 pogroms is controversial. Zorlu denied his role. Esenbel also defended Zorlu’s innocence. One of his strongest defenders, however, was another diplomat, Mahmut Dikerdem, who was a Democrat party dissident. When the pogroms happened, Dikerdem was together with Zorlu in London. He told how Zorlu was unaware of the events in his own memoirs, Orta Doğu’da Devrim Yılları (Years of Revolution in the Middle East). Esenbel also showed Dikerdem as a witness of Zorlu’s innocence. However, the military court rejected Dikerdem’s request to be a witness in favor of Zorlu.
Emine Esenbel’s has every feature of diplomat memoirs. There are colorful characters, historical events, famous leaders, drama, and politics. It tells the story of a career on the edges. Yet, the book is not easy to find. It was published in 2004. Readers must check old bookstores or libraries to find the book. I think it is worth the effort if you like diplomat memoirs.
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