Edouard Blak

{{Short description|French-Ottoman journalist (1824–1895)}}

{{family name hatnote|Edouard|Bey|Blak/Blacque|lang=Ottoman Turkish}}{{Infobox person

| honorific_suffix = Bey

| image = Edouard Blacque Bey.jpg

| caption = Portrait of Blak by Mathew Brady

| birth_date = 1824

| death_date = {{d-da|1895|1824}}

| module = {{infobox officeholder|embed=yes

|office =1st Ottoman minister to the United States

|termstart =1867

|termend =1873

|predecessor =

|successor =Gregory Aristarchis

}}

}}

Edouard Blak Bey a.k.a. Edouard Blacque (1824–1895{{cite journal|author=Wasti, Syed Tanvir|title=Ahmed Rüstem Bey and the End of an Era|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=48|year=2012|issue=5|pages=781–796|doi=10.1080/00263206.2012.703616|s2cid=144132608}} - Published online 14 August 2012 - Content from notes section) was the first minister of the Ottoman Empire to the United States.Kuneralp, Sinan. "Ottoman Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in the United States of America, 1867-1917." In: Criss, Nur Bilge, Selçuk Esenbel, Tony Greenwood, and Louis Mazzari (editors). American Turkish Encounters: Politics and Culture, 1830-1989 (EBSCO Ebook Academic Collection). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 12 July 2011. {{ISBN|144383260X}}, 9781443832601. Start: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 100]. CITED: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 101].

His father, a Frenchman descended from the Scottish Catholic Black family, was Alexandre Blacque, editor of Le Moniteur ottoman. The Ottoman state sent Blak on scholarship to Collège Saint-Barbe in France in 1837, making him the first non-Muslim to get such a scholarship.Kırmızı, Abdulhamit. "European Educational Backgrounds of Armenian Officials in the Ottoman Empire." In: Schmoller, Andreas (editor). Middle Eastern Christians and Europe: Historical Legacies and Present Challenges. LIT Verlag Münster, 2018. {{ISBN|3643910231}}, 9783643910233. Start: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=d4VVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 59]. CITED: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=d4VVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 61]. The same page identifies him as an Ambassador to the US, so it is the same person. Blak married an American woman whose father was a surgeon; the surgeon was well known at the time.Kuneralp, Sinan. "Ottoman Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in the United States of America, 1867-1917." In: Criss, Nur Bilge, Selçuk Esenbel, Tony Greenwood, and Louis Mazzari (editors). American Turkish Encounters: Politics and Culture, 1830-1989 (EBSCO Ebook Academic Collection). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 12 July 2011. {{ISBN|144383260X}}, 9781443832601. Start: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 100]. CITED: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 100].

Blak joined the Ottoman Foreign service with posts in Paris, France and Naples, Italy. In the mid-1850s Blak, sensing the rise of the United States, asked the Ottoman government to establish a diplomatic post in the U.S.; at the time the U.S. already had a minister to the empire. Blak's motive for the request stemmed from his marriage. The empire did not reciprocate until 1867.

Blak came to the U.S. in 1866, and was accompanied by his new wife, a Levantine Catholic woman, as his American wife had died by then. While in the U.S. she gave birth to a son, named Reşad or Richard. Blak stated that he had a positive view of the U.S. from his term of service.Kuneralp, Sinan. "Ottoman Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in the United States of America, 1867-1917." In: Criss, Nur Bilge, Selçuk Esenbel, Tony Greenwood, and Louis Mazzari (editors). American Turkish Encounters: Politics and Culture, 1830-1989 (EBSCO Ebook Academic Collection). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 12 July 2011. {{ISBN|144383260X}}, 9781443832601. Start: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 100]. CITED: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 107].

Blak appeared in a photograph with Robert E. Lee and other officials from the U.S. government. Sinan Kuneralp, author of "Ottoman Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in the United States of America, 1867-1917," described this photograph as "one of America's most valuable pictorial documents" and what Blak "is best remembered [for] today".

File:Robert E Lee with his Generals, 1869.jpg

His term as U.S. envoy ended in 1873. He became president of Pera Municipality (now Beyoğlu), where he established a system of public parks that got inspiration from Washington, DC.