Construction of the Yugoslav embassy in Ankara had huge political, economic and cultural importance for the development of relations between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Turkey. Its location and distinctive style ensured it a special place among the residential and public buildings in the new capital of Turkey. The ideologist of the entire undertaking was Branko Lazarevic (1883-1961), an eminent Serbian aesthetician and diplomat, from 1934 serving as ambassador of Yugoslavia to Turkey. There are indications that he had pleaded with the King for the architecture of the embassy to emulate conspicuously the sumptuous Dedinje residence in form and structure. As a steadfast advocate of the ideology of primordial Yugoslavism, admirer of folk epics and champion of a return to the ancient Slavic and Balkano-Illyrian "founts", he saw the Dinaric type of the Balkan townhouse smoothly fitted into landscape as the desirable architectural emblem of modern state identity.