Sabiha Gökçen (; 22 March 1913 – 22 March 2001) was a Turkish aviator. During her flight career, she flew around 8,000 hours and participated in 32 different military operations. She was the world's first female fighter pilot, aged 23. As an

orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

, she was one of the nine children adopted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. She is recognized as the first female combat pilot by '' The Guinness Book of World Records'' (in fact she was the first female fighter pilot, as the first female combat pilot was Marie Marvingt in 1915) and was selected as the only female pilot for the poster of "''The 20 Greatest Aviators in History''" published by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

in 1996.. See 9m30s in for 1996 USAF poster claim.

Sabiha Gökçen Airport Sabiha is an Arabic word () meaning "Morning" and a female given name. In Urdu it (خوبصورت، گوری چٹی) refers to beautiful, and blonde hair. People with the name include: People Given name *Sabiha Sultan (1894–1971), Ottoman princes ...

, the second airport in Istanbul, is named after her.

Early life

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. 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 Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, where Sabiha would live with Atatürk's other adoptive daughters, Zehra, Afet and Rukiye. Gökçen attended the Çankaya Primary School in

and the Üsküdar American Academy in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

. In February 2004 an article in the newspaper ''

Agos ''Agos'' (in hy, Ակօս, " furrow") is an Armenian bilingual weekly newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey, established on 5 April 1996. ''Agos'' has both Armenian and Turkish pages as well as an online English edition. Today, the paper ...

'', headlined "The Secret of Sabiha Hatun", contained an interview with Hripsime Sebilciyan, a former resident of

Gaziantep Gaziantep (), previously and still informally called Aintab or Antep (), is a major city and capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region, approxi ...

, who claimed to be Gökçen's niece and that Gökçen herself was of Armenian ancestry. Sebilciyan claimed that Gökçen's birth name was Hatun Sebilciyan and that she was adopted by Atatürk from an orphanage in Cibin in Urfa Province. Sebilcyan said that Gökçen had four brothers: Sarkis, Boğos, Haçik and Hovhannes, and a sister, Diruhi (Hripsime's mother). According to Turkish-Armenian linguist Pars Tuğlacı, who knew Gökçen personally and deemed Sebilciyan's story to be false, Gökçen was born to an Armenian family from Bursa and was left in an orphanage there when her family was deported during the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...

. Tuğlacı also claimed that Gökçen later found out about her Armenian roots when members of her family contacted her from

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

and that she visited her Armenian relatives there. However, these claims are disputed by Turkish sources and interviews with Gökçen, as well as by her adopted sister

Ülkü Adatepe Ülkü Adatepe (born Ülkü Çukurluoğlu; November 27, 1932 – August 1, 2012) was the youngest adopted daughter of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Her interactions with Atatürk were often featured in Turkish media, including the cover of the ''Alfabe' ...

, who reiterated that Gökçen and both of Sabiha's parents were of Bosniak ancestry. After the introduction of the

Surname Law Surname law can refer to any law regulating the use of surnames. Canada From 1941 to 1978, the Government of Canada issued disc numbers to identify Inuit in their records. In the mid-1960s Project Surname began, and, headed by Abe Okpik, Inuit ...

, 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, and it was only six months later that Sabiha developed a passion for flying.

Career

Atatürk attached great importance to

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

and for that purpose oversaw the foundation of the

Turkish Aeronautical Association Turkish Aeronautical Association ( tr, Türk Hava Kurumu - THK) is a non-profit organization with an aim of increasing public awareness and participation in aviation related activities and the national body governing air sports in Turkey. The asso ...

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 An air show (or airshow, air fair, air tattoo) is a public event where aircraft are exhibited. They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground. The largest air show ...

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 Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

, 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 Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, 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"''.'' 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 Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...

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

Airbase and gained experience after participating in the Aegean and

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

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 Mehmed Nuri Dersimi (1893 in Akzunik in ''Dersim'' (today Tunceli) – 22 August 1973 in Aleppo), also known as Baytar Nuri, was a Kurdish writer, revolutionary and intellectual. Dersimi was born in March 1893 in the village Akzunik to the west ...

claimed that the Turkish air force bombed the district with poisonous gas in 1938. 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". She was awarded with a commendation for her actions during the operation. She was also awarded the

's first "''Murassa'' (Jeweled) Medal" for her superior performance in this operation. Sabiha Gokcen and her colleagues in front of Breguet 19

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

, where she served until 1954 as a flight instructor 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 Hrant Dink ( hy, Հրանդ Տինք; Western ; 15 September 1954 – 19 January 2007) was a Turkish-Armenian intellectual, editor-in-chief of ''Agos'', journalist and columnist. As editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspa ...

, Turkish-Armenian journalist, published an interview with a person claiming to be Gökçen's niece that claimed that Gökçen was of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

origin. Many contested the matter, including her adopted sister,

, who stated that Gökçen was of Bosniak ancestry. 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". Hrant Dink, the journalist who wrote the article, came under criticism, most notably from newspaper columnists and Turkish nationalist groups. A US consul dispatch leaked by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

and penned by an official from the consulate in Istanbul observed that the entire affair "exposed an ugly streak of racism in Turkish society." It is also believed that the affair was one of the reasons that led to Hrant Dink's assassination in Istanbul in January 2007.

Legacy and recognition

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport Sabiha is an Arabic word () meaning "Morning" and a female given name. In Urdu it (خوبصورت، گوری چٹی) refers to beautiful, and blonde hair. People with the name include: People Given name *Sabiha Sultan ota, رقیه صبیحه س� ...

is named after her. It opened on 8 January 2001, ten weeks before her death. She is recognized as the first female combat pilot by The Guinness Book of World Records. She was selected as the only female pilot for the poster of "''The 20 Greatest Aviators in History''" published by the

in 1996. That year, she was also honored at the

Air Command and Staff College The Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) is located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama and is the United States Air Force's intermediate-level Professional Military Education (PME) school. It is a subordinate command of the Air Univ ...

's Gathering of Eagles at Maxwell Air Force Base. The program encourages the study of aviation history by emphasizing the contributions of aviation pioneers. She was the subject of a

Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...

honouring her birthday, which was displayed in Turkey on 22 March 2009.

Death

Gökçen died of heart failure at the age of 88 at Gülhane Military Medical Academy on 22 March 2001.

Awards and medals

* Number one Medal of Övünç (Murassa) and certificate of

, * 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, * Honorary Doctor of Selcuk University, * Gold medal awarded by THK in 1989, * The FAI gold medal, awarded by the International Aviation Federation in 1991 to aviators showing outstanding success in all branches of aviation, * The title of "one of the 20 aviators who made their mark in world history" at the ceremony at the USA's Maxwell Air Base in 1996, * 28 plaques given by the army, various associations and organizations.

Gallery

File:Sabiha Gökçen's bust in İstanbul Aviation Museum.jpg, Bust of Sabiha Gökçen at the Istanbul Aviation Museum. File:Atatürk, Ali Çetinkaya and Sabiha Gökçen in Diyarbakır.jpg, Atatürk, Ali Çetinkaya and Sabiha Gökçen in

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

. File:Sabiha Gokcen with cap.jpg, Sabiha Gökçen with officers. File:Breguet 19 Sabiha.jpg, Sabiha Gökçen poses with her Breguet 19 File:Sabiha Breguet 19.jpg, Sabiha Gökçen reviews her Breguet 19

References

;Notes ;References

External links

* * Atatürk Arşivi - Sabiha Gökçen
Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFNZpeaikxs Part
Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyiJrVj2vnA Part
Part 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS5yB9FdIzs Part 6] {{DEFAULTSORT:Gokcen, Sabiha 1913 births 2001 deaths People from Bursa People from Hüdavendigâr vilayet Bosniak diaspora Turkish people of Bosniak descent Turkish women in warfare Turkish Air Force personnel Turkish aviators Turkish women aviators Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Aviation pioneers Üsküdar American Academy alumni People of the Dersim rebellion Women in war 1900–1945