Erkin worked as a deputy accountant in İstanbul public administration in 1920. He was the chief secretary of the population exchange commission in 1926. He was appointed to his first diplomatic post in 1928 as the first secretary in the Turkish embassy in London. After serving at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in various capacities he was named as the envoy extraordinary in the Turkish embassy in Berlin 1934. Erkin became consul general in Berlin in 1938. During World War II he headed a commission of the Republic of Turkey which was formed to assist Greece when it was attacked by the Nazi forces and was the undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
