At first taking up diplomatic posts throughout Europe, Kuneralp was later appointed Turkish Ambassador to Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Spain, as well as twice serving as Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry.
Born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire in October 1914, Kuneralp was the second son of Ali Kemal, a journalist, writer, and politician, by his second wife, Sabiha Hanım.
[1] He was detained when the revolutionaries won in 1922 and taken to Ankara to an Independence Tribunal, but the ferry (or train) he was put on stopped at Izmit and there he was murdered by young Turkish soldiers.
When permission for him to enter the Turkish Foreign Ministry was granted personally by President İsmet İnönü in 1942, Kuneralp began his career there, going on to become one of the most brilliant diplomats of his generation.
An article, "Ambassador Extraordinary", describing his life and personality, was published after his death in Number 16 of the magazine Cornucopia, 1998, as well as a short volume of memoirs by his British and Turkish friends giving details of his career.
Kuneralp had two sons who both survive him, Sinan, a leading Istanbul publisher, and Selim, who went into the diplomatic service and has been Turkey's ambassador to Sweden and South Korea.
He is also among founders of a Francophone High School in Ankara called "Lycée Tevfik Fikret" Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is Ali Kemal Bey's great-grandson and Kuneralp's great nephew.