An Evaluation Of Prof. Dr. Mine Erol’s Contribution To Ottoman And Republican Historiography

Abstract

The aim of this article is to evaluate the contribution of Prof. Dr. Mine Erol to the historiography of the Ottoman and Republic Period with sections from her life (1929-2022). She was the first historian to study the American mandate issue and Alfred Rüstem Bey, the Ottoman ambassador to the US. Her publications focused on TurkishAmerican relations during the Ottoman State, WWI, and Turkish War of Independence.

Prof. Mine Erol’s family members, starting from her great-grandfather, graduated from schools that provide foreign language education. After studying History at the Faculty of Language, History and Geography, with the influence of English language knowledge that she mastered at Arnavutköy Girls’ College, in order to examine Turkish-American relations, she had the opportunity to work from primary sources in the United States Library of Congress for research purposes, with Fulbright scholarships in 1962 and ARIT in 1975. She also evaluated the commercial agreements between the Ottoman State and the United States. Prof. Dr. Erol concentrated on the foreign policy pursued by Alfred Rüstem, who served as an Ottoman ambassador before WWI and supported the Ankara Government during Turkish War of Independence. She was the first historian to study the American mandate and the history of paper money in the Ottoman State. Prof. Dr. Erol, who contributed to the study of various periods of Turkish-American relations, has not been studied before. This study, using historical approach, examines the key events in her life between 1929 and 2012, based on her autobiography. Her works are compared with her contemporaries who dealt with similar topics, analyzing their contribution to the field.