Turkey's first First Lady: Latife Hanım
Saturday, February 23, 2008
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News
Latife Hanım was married to Atatürk for two-and-a-half years. She refused to give interviews after their divorce, getting a court injunction to prevent anything being published about her
Childhood friends and acquaintances were always struck by her erudition and talent. Her eyes were particularly expressive and she spoke with maturity beyond her years
She and author Halide Edip Adivar served as role models for other young women during her marriage to Atatürk. She instigated many of his projects during this two-year period
Latife Uşşaki, known as Latife Hanım, is something of an enigma. This young woman was married to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey and the most powerful man of his time in his country, but she is poorly understood, in fact hardly known at, all because of her efforts to remain out of the public eye.
Their marriage lasted two-and-a-half years; after their divorce she refused to give interviews and went to court to obtain an injunction in order to prevent anything being published about her. Her letters were given to the Turkish Historical Society in Ankara after her death in 1976 with instructions that they not be opened for 25 years. Even now, the family has asked that they not be published for the time being, and those wishes have so far been honored.
Latife Hanım's life and family
By all accounts, Latife Hanım was different from other women of her time.
Her family, the Uşşakizade or Uşaklıgil family, lived in İzmir but was originally from Uşak, a town approximately 200 kilometers east of İzmir. The family business was in trade, mostly of cotton. Well off and influential in İzmir, they frequently traveled to Europe, eventually spending a lot of time in Switzerland.
Latife Hanım's father, Muammer Bey, owned the first car in İzmir and brought the first ferryboat to the city. He became mayor of Izmir in 1909. Her mother's family was also well off and worked in trade. The family home in Goztepe was three stories tall, furnished in the English style and had a garden.
Latife Hanım was born in İzmir in 1898, the eldest of three daughters and three sons. After finishing high school in İzmir, she went to boarding school in London and then to the Sorbonne in Paris, where she studied political science and law in 1921. She was well educated and knew several foreign languages, but she especially preferred German.
Her parents lived in Switzerland after the Greeks invaded Anatolia and occupied İzmir. Latife Hanım, however, did not complete her education abroad and chose to return home to care for her ill grandmother.
The Uşaklıgil family was unusually progressive for their time. A photograph of them shows the women in Western dress, their heads uncovered, which was even more progressive than women in Istanbul at the time, perhaps a result of Izmir's long history as a trade center, which placed it in contact with the East and West.
At the beginning of the 20th century, İzmir was a lively cosmopolitan town filled with foreigners. Theaters abounded, opera was introduced to Turkey here and the city was on summer tours of French and Italian acting troupes.
The Turkish War of Independence had not yet ended and İzmir was still under Greek occupation when Latife Hanım returned from Europe. The name of Mustafa Kemal was on everyone's lips and his exploits were well known. He did not arrive in Izmir until two days after his troops had taken the city, but it was still in flames from fires reputedly started by the retreating Greeks.
When Latife Hanım heard he had arrived, she went to him to ask him to consider making his headquarters at her family's mansion in Goztepe. (By Turkish standards, this would have been an extraordinary move for an unmarried, properly-brought-up young woman in 1922, but she was an extraordinary woman accustomed to a more tolerant West.) He readily did so and the two kept in touch after his departure. Mustafa Kemal was on one of his frequent train trips around the country when his mother died in Izmir on Jan. 14, 1923. He received the news in Eskişehir but could not reach İzmir in time for the funeral. He arrived on Jan. 27 and proposed to Latife Hanım on the same day. After receiving her parents' blessing, they married on Jan. 29.
Latife Hanım as role model
Those who knew Latife Hanım as she grew up were always struck by her erudition and talent. She was an excellent pianist, her eyes were particularly expressive and she spoke with eloquence beyond her years. In addition to her education in school, she was tutored by some of the most accomplished teachers of the time, including Tevfik Fikret and Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil, a relative of the family. It is not surprising, therefore, that Mustafa Kemal was quite impressed by her. She brought knowledge of the West from her experiences studying, traveling and living there.
While married to Atatürk, Latife Hanım and author Halide Edip Adivar served as role models for other young women. She instigated many of Atatürk's projects during this two-year period. With her knowledge of foreign languages, she was able to translate for him and was usually by his side, adopting a manner of dress that would not offend the more conservative among the Turks. It seems she wore Western dress in private but the few photographs that exist of her in public usually show her with a scarf wrapped tightly around her head and wearing rather bulky clothing that fell well below her knees. Young people who see photos of her today are amazed that she covered her head.
The reason for her divorce from Mustafa Kemal is still a mystery. It is known that they frequently quarreled, which is hardly surprising since both had strong characters. However, what went on behind closed doors stayed there. One theory of the marriage's failure involves Fikriye, Atatürk's former mistress. When Fikriye tried to see him after he married, she was turned away at the door and shot herself, hurting Atatürk's relationship with Latife Hanım.
Others believe the marriage fell apart because Mustafa Kemal would not change his habits of drinking and staying up late for her. She appears to have wanted a more normal home life and could not accept him for who he was.
Fortunately for Latife Hanım after her divorce from Mustafa Kemal, her family was well off. She moved to Istanbul and divided her time between that city and İzmir, spending time in Europe as well. She was in a hospital in Switzerland when Mustafa Kemal died in 1938, and her reaction remains unknown.
Latife Hanım spent the rest of her life refusing to discuss her marriage with anyone. She died on July 12, 1975 at the age of 77 and was buried in Istanbul after a funeral ceremony at Tesvikiye Mosque. She did not receive a state funeral, but a Turkish flag was found at the last moment and draped over her coffin.
Jan. 29, 2008, would have marked Atatürk and Latife Hanım's 85th wedding anniversary.
Latife Hanım's letter
A recent book by Rifat Bali titled "New Documents on Atatürk: Atatürk Viewed Through the Eyes of American Diplomats" temporarily stirred the flames of controversy. Bali studied documents and personal papers belonging to Admiral Bristol, United States commissioner in Istanbul at the time, and other diplomats of the period in the archives in Washington, D.C. He came across a letter in which Latife Hanım complained about Atatürk's law prohibiting people from wearing clothes of their choice. The letter, dated Feb. 21, 1926, was sent to be published in the Boston Globe, but Bali and others have said they are unsure whether it was really written by Latife Hanım.
The letter criticizes the legislation passed that dissolved the various mystic lodges and prohibited certain types of clothing, arguing that people have the right to choose and the state could not and should not take that right away.
Bali cannot vouch for the letter's authenticity, he said, adding that the archives with her letters and other documents would need to be opened before any decision could be made. The letter's angry tone could be proof that Latife Hanım did write the letter, said Bali, since her divorce from Atatürk would have still been fresh in her mind.
© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr
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