From an album by Zekai Apaydın, one of the ministers and ambassadors of the Republic of Turkey
Ekrem Apaydın
Keywords: Zekâi Apaydın, Album, Biography
Abstract
Üzeyir Zekai was born in 1884 in the village of Graveshka, Bosnia. His grandfather, Hacı Ali Agha, was an Ottoman army Raider and worked as a Castle Guard in Bosnia and settled there. His father, merchant Hacı Salih and his mother Şefika hanım, migrated to Anatolia with their children and settled in Aydm. He studied at Aziz Üzeyir Zekai, Aydın and Izmir Idadilerinde and graduated from Mülkiye with a pekiyi degree in 1903. In the same year, he was appointed as a civil servant of Aydin province. He was the prefect of Vilçitrin, Palanga, Uşak, Eskişehir and Beykoz. In 1911 he married Ayşe Vasfiye Hanım in Istanbul. He was promoted to Içel Mutasarrif in 1913 and served as Mutasarrif in Mersin, Kayseri and Eskişehir.