Behind Every Good Man

While on holiday in Turkey, we were bombarded with statues, posters, flags and banknotes bearing the image of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.  The holiday rep in our hotel told us that surnames were introduced as part of his reforms and he was given the name Ataturk because that means father of the Turks and he introduced a series of reformes to modernize Turkey, enabling it to compete in the Western world.  He changed the alphabet to a Latin script, revolutionised education, gave equal rights to women, adopted a policy of neutrality to other countries and established friendly relations with Turkey's neighbours.

This man seemed an enigma to me. My first thought was of the women behind him. His mother must have been an amazing woman to bring up a son that thought that women needed equal rights, or maybe he had a wife who guided him in these matters. Men always get a little upset when women say things like that and the Long Suffering Husband was no exception.  I had to point out that it didn't make him any less of a brilliant man, if a brilliant woman had helped and guided him but I thought it was unlikely that he would have thought about women needing rights unless he knew one who thought she did.  It would be like a dog campaigning for cats to be taken for walks. A dog would think cats like their independance to come and go as they please and may never realise that the cat is lonely unless the cat told the dog.

So, I have become a little obsessed with Mr Father of Turkey and the women behind him and have been reading everything the internet has to offer and have ordered some real books from the library.

The very first fact I read interested me, 'Mustafa Kemal was born in Salonika in 1881'.  Most of my historical knowledge is gleaned from novels and so may not be entirely accurate but from reading Victoria Hislop's The Thread, I know that Thessalonaki was an interesting place, a mix of people and religions, Muslims, Jews, Christians all lived in the same streets observing their own cultures. This must have had an influence on his desire to adopt a policy of neutrality.  The Turks still do national service and their military is very important.  Little Mustafa Kemal went to military school at 12 years old and served in the Balkan war, which tore Salonika apart and returned it to the hands of the Greeks, leaving hundreds of Muslims to flee for their lives.

At first I could only find reports of his bravery and military acheivements in his youth and then I stumbled upon his mother.  Her name was Zubeyde and she was a clever girl who could read and write.  She was given the name Zubeyde Molla, which means someone knowledgable who can teach others. Zubeyde was a devout Muslim and insisted that her son learn the Qur'an.  His father wanted him to go to the Jewish school that had a more progressive education but his mother insisted that he went to the Muslim school.  This seems like an amazing battle for her to have won, as fathers were responsible for choosing the education of their children.  Mustafa's father died when he was 6, leaving his mother to have sole parental responsiblity and they moved in with Zubeyde's brother on a farm just outside of Salonika. When it came time for the choice of secondary education she won another battle and sent her son to a community school with a progressive education system, against the wishes of her brother.  When he was 12, Mustafa took the entrance exams to go to Military School without telling his mother (aparently because he liked the uniform) and it was there that a maths teacher gave him the name Kemal, which means perfection.  They lost touch during the Balkan war but were reunited when she fled with her new husband to Istanbul.  She died in Izmir in 1923.

There are only 4 women associated with this man as girlfriends/wives/lovers.  This seems quite a small number for such a powerful man but maybe they were more discrete about their affairs in those days.  The first was Eleni Karinte, who according to folk lore, fell in love with him while he was a student in Macedonia.  She is supposed to have watched him from her balcony and have been locked in the house by her disapproving father when she planned to elope.  Their story has inspired a play, film and melodrama and it does sound very much like Romeo and Juliette.

During the First World War Mustafa Kemal was stationed in Sofia (Bulgaria), where he met and fell in love with a girl called Dimitrina Kovacheva.  She had returned from studying in Swizerland and was a very accomplished musician.  Mustafa enjoyed attending her concerts and asked her father for her hand in marriage.  He refused because he didn't think she would be able to cope with the demands of a Muslim relgigion.  The pair continued to see each other and when Mustafa asked for her hand in marriage again her father quickly arranged a marriage for her and although she fainted when she heard the news she obeyed her father's wishes. She went on to have a very difficult life, as her husband was put on the list of 'undesirable elements' by the Bulgarian Communist Secret Police.  She died of stomach cancer in the seventies.

His mother had remarried and one of his cousins from this new marriage, Fikriye, became interested in Mustafa Kemal.  After she divorced her Egyptian husband she became his mistress and personal assistant.  I can't find out much about her, the internet information is all in Turkish, which google translates in the most peculiar way but what there is seems very interesting. There is a huge scandal around her death, which is related to the next woman in his life.

When the Turkish Army were stationed in Izmir in 1922 they used Latife Usakligil's family home as headquaters and when she returned home from University at the Sorbonne in Paris the soldiers almost refused to let her in.  This is when she met Mustafa Kemal who was 20 years older than her.  He fell in love with her and her brilliant intellect and skill as a linguist and when he returned to Izmir after his mother's death in 1923 they were married.  She seems to have been the most amazing woman.  A feminist, who encouraged him to make all the major reforms to women's rights.  She didn't wear the veil on her wedding day and was often seen in Western clothes.  She attended parliament to hear the speech they had written together, making women equal.  She was liked by women but not by men.  She is reported to have been grumpy, sour, difficult and hard work.  She was aparently jealous of Fikriye (not entireley surprising, as her husband had been sleeping with the woman for many years) and insisted that she leave.  Fikriye then died in mysterious circumstances, with the most popular explaination being that she shot herself with a gun that Mustafa Kemal had given her. Latife continued to be difficult  (opinionated?) and after an argument with her husband about his drinking went home to Izmir and while she was there he divorced her.  They remained loyal to each other for the rest of their lives and never discussed their relationship in public and her husband is reported to have continued to send her roses after their divorce.

I would like to know so much more about this woman but her diaries and papers that she wrote have been classified by the Turkish Government.  It seems to me that the problem with History is there is no room for Her-story, just in case it weakens His-story.