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Daughters of Mustafa Kemal; left to right: Zehra Aylin, Rukiye (Erkin) and Sabiha (Gökçen).Left to right: Rukiye (Erkin), Sabiha (Gökçen), Afet (İnan), and Zehra Aylin.
According to official Turkish sources and interviews with Sabiha Gökçen, she was the daughter of Mustafa Izzet Bey and Hayriye Hanım, both of whom were of Bosniak ancestry.[15] During Atatürk's visit to Bursa in 1925, Sabiha, who was only twelve years old, asked for permission to talk with Atatürk and expressed her wish to study at a boarding school. After hearing her story and about her miserable living conditions, Atatürk decided to adopt her and asked her brother for permission to take her to the Çankaya Presidential Residence in Ankara, where Sabiha would live with Atatürk's other adoptive daughters, Zehra, Afet and Rukiye. Gökçen attended the Çankaya Primary School in Ankara and the Üsküdar American Academy in Istanbul.
After the introduction of the Surname Law, Atatürk gave her the family name Gökçen on 19 December 1934. 'Gök' means sky in Turkish and Gökçen means 'belonging or relating to the sky'. However, she was not an aviator at that time,[16][17] and it was only six months later that Sabiha developed a passion for flying.
Career
Sabiha Gökçen in Athens, during her 1938 Balkan tour.
Atatürk attached great importance to aviation and for that purpose oversaw the foundation of the Turkish Aeronautical Association in 1925. He took Sabiha along with him to the opening ceremony of Türkkuşu (Turkish Bird) Flight School on 5 May 1935. During the airshow of gliders and parachutists invited from foreign countries, she got very excited. As Atatürk asked her whether she would also want to become a skydiver, she nodded, "yes indeed, I am ready right now". Atatürk instructed Fuat Bulca, the head of the school, to enroll her as the first female trainee. She was meant to become a skydiver, but she was much more interested in flying, so she earned her pilot's licence. Gökçen, together with seven male students, was sent to Crimea, Soviet Union for an advanced course in glider and powered aircraft piloting. However, when she was in Moscow, she learned the news that her sister Zehra had died, and with collapsed morale, she immediately returned to Turkey, isolating herself from social activities for some time.
After a while, at Atatürk's insistence, Gökçen began working again. At Eskişehir Aviation School, she received special flight training from Savmi Uçan and Muhittin Bey. She began flying a motorized aircraft for the first time on February 25, 1936.
Gökçen, due to the success in flight training, Ataturk himself said: "You've made me very happy ... Now I can explain what I have planned for you ... Perhaps you'll be the first woman military pilot in the world ... For the world's first military woman pilot to be of Turkish descent would be a proud event, you can imagine, right? Now I will act immediately and send you to Tayyare School in Eskişehir. You will receive a special education there".[16]
Sabiha Gökçen and her colleagues in front of a Bréguet 19
As girls were not being accepted by the Turkish War Academies in those years, Gökçen was provided, on Atatürk's orders, with a personalized uniform, and attended a special education programme of eleven months at the Tayyare Mektebi (Aviation School) in Eskişehir in the academic year 1936-1937. After receiving her flight patents (diploma) she trained to become a war pilot at the 1st Airplane Regiment in Eskişehir for six months.
She improved her skills by flying bomber and fighter planes at the 1st Aircraft Regiment in Eskişehir Airbase and gained experience after participating in the Aegean and Thrace exercises in 1937. In that same year, she took part in military operations during the Dersim rebellion and became the first Turkish female air force combat pilot. Turkish planes flew numerous sorties against the rebels during the rebellion. A report of the General Staff mentioned the "serious damage" that had been caused by her 50 kg bomb upon a group of rebels. Nuri Dersimi claimed that the Turkish air force bombed the district with poisonous gas in 1938.[18] In an interview she gave to Halit Kıvanç in 1956, Sabiha Gökçen stated: "They gave us the order 'Shoot every living thing you see', we were firebombing even the goats which were the food of the rebels".[19][20] She was awarded with a commendation for her actions during the operation. She was also awarded the Turkish Aeronautical Association's first "Murassa (Jeweled) Medal" for her superior performance in this operation.[16]
In 1938, she carried out a five-day flight around the Balkan countries to great acclaim. In the same year, she was appointed chief trainer of the Türkkuşu Flight School of the Turkish Aeronautical Association, where she served until 1954 as a flight instructor[16] and became a member of the association's executive board. She trained four female aviators: Edibe Subaşı, Yıldız Uçman, Sahavet Karapas and Nezihe Viranyalı. Gökçen flew around the world for a period of 28 years until 1964. Her book entitled A Life Along the Path of Atatürk was published in 1981 by the Turkish Aeronautical Association to commemorate Atatürk's 100th birthday.
Controversies
The question of Gökçen's ethnic origin made headlines and sparked controversy in 2004, when Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian journalist, published an interview with a person identifying as Gökçen's niece that claimed that Gökçen was of Armenian origin.[21] Many contested the matter, including her adopted sister, Ülkü Adatepe, who stated that Gökçen was of Bosniak ancestry.[22][23][24][25] The notion that Gökçen could have been Armenian caused controversy in the country; the Turkish General Staff released a statement saying that the debate "mocked national values" and was "not conducive to social peace".[26] Hrant Dink, the journalist who wrote the article, came under criticism, most notably from newspaper columnists and Turkish nationalist groups.[27][21] A leaked US consul dispatch penned by an official from the consulate in Istanbul observed that the entire affair "exposed an ugly streak of racism in Turkish society."[27] It is also believed that the affair was one of the reasons that led to Hrant Dink's assassination in Istanbul in January 2007.[28][29][30]
She was selected as the only female pilot for the poster of "The 20 Greatest Aviators in History" published by the United States Air Force in 1996.[14]
The Badge of the White Eagle, the highest badge given by the Yugoslav Army, and an army badge,
Romanian Army Aviation Badge,
Commemorative medals awarded for the Thracian and Aegean maneuvers,
Pioneer women's plaque in their professions, given at the ceremony in the Turkish Grand National Assembly on the 50th anniversary of Turkish women gaining suffrage and election rights,
^"1915 - First woman pilot in combat missions as a bomber pilot - Marie Marvingt (France)". Centennial of Women Pilots. Archived from the original on 11 January 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2015. In 1915, Marvingt became the first woman in the world to fly combat missions when she became a volunteer pilot flying bombing missions over German-held territory and she received the Croix de Guerre (Military Cross) for her aerial bombing of a German military base in Metz.
^"Women Combat Pilots of WW1". Monash University. Retrieved 10 January 2015. Princess Eugenie M. Shakhovskaya was Russia's first woman military pilot. Served with the 1st Field Air Squadron. Unknown if she actually flew any combat missions, and she was ultimately charged with treason and attempting to flee to enemy lines. Sentenced to death by firing squad, sentence commuted to life imprisonment by the Tsar, freed during the Revolution, became chief executioner for Gen. Tchecka and drug addict, shot one of her assistants in a narcotic delirium and was herself shot.
^"Ataturk's Daughter was an Armenian". armedia.am. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2017. According to Turkish sources and the interview with Sabiha Gokcen herself, she was born on March 22, 1913 in Bursa. She was the daughter of Mustafa İzzet Bey and Hayriye Hanim who were ethnic Bosniaks
^Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (28 February 2005). "2004 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Turkey". Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. US State Department. Retrieved 25 July 2008. In February, the Hurriyet newspaper's publication of a report that Sabiha Gokcen--an adopted daughter of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was the country's first female pilot--was of Armenian descent drew a number of racist public statements. The Turkish General Staff issued a statement criticizing the reports on Gokcen's alleged Armenian ancestry as 'a claim that abuses national values and feelings' while the Turkish Air Association called the report 'an insult' to Gokcen and to Ataturk.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
