Osman Nuri Tekeli

Following his graduation Tekeli began to serve as district director of Ağırus-Atabey (Isparta) in 1914 until his military service. He served in the Ottoman army during World War I.^[2] Upon finishing his military service, he was appointed executive assistant at the directorate of security in 1918. In the same year, he became the head official of then-district Bayburt. Later, he was appointed head official of Pasinler. He served as the official head of Ödemiş in December 1922^[4] and of Sürmene in 1923.^[5] He was appointed to other districts as head official such as Fethiye, Bozdağ, Keşan and Osmaniye until 1935 when he became civil inspector (Mülkiye Müfettişi in Turkish).^[2][6]

He was appointed governor of Erzincan Province in 1939. During his tenure, the province witnessed a huge natural disaster, the 1939 Erzincan earthquake. The earthquake with an intensity of 8.2 MS hit the province at 1:57 am (GMT 11:57 pm) on 27 December 1939. The death toll was around 32,962.^[7] Tekeli informed the government officials about the disaster as soon as possible. Then, the province began to receive medical, food and other related assistance.^[8]

Later, he served as the governor of various provinces including Denizli, Diyarbakır, Kahramanmaraş and Bilecik.^[9][10] His last governorship was in Afyonkarahisar from 1946 to 1948.^[1] He then was appointed head of the Inspection Directorate at the Ministry of Interior in Ankara,^[11] and his tenure lasted for five years until his retirement in 1952.^[2]

O. Nuri Tekeli was married and had three daughters, one of whom is Sevim Tekeli,^[2] Turkish historian of science.