Page 1 of
2 KEBABBLE All the
presidents' women By Fazile
Zahir
FETHIYE, Turkey - Since the election
of Turkish President Abdullah Gul this month, the
national and international media have devoted as
many column-centimeters and as much air time to
his wife as they have to him. Hayrunisa Gul is
allegedly the first Turkish first lady to wear a
headscarf in the presidential Cankaya Palace, and
much speculation has surrounded how she will
comport herself both within and without the palace
walls.
Turkish first ladies have grown in
importance over the years since
Latife
Ussaki married Kemal Ataturk in 1925, and today
they are considered significant representatives of
their husbands, both on the domestic and global
stage. Popular first ladies have been role models
for Turkish woman in general, and unpopular ones
have been despised for their potential influence
on the president. Previously politically active
Hayrunisa Gul will now be watched with great
interest and some degree of ambivalence by news
commentators, the public and the army.
Despite the fact that statistically a
presidential candidate's wife plays little or no
part in influencing voters, once they are in place
they are seen as politically significant. Whether
she will be a "ceremonial" and demure,
behind-the-scenes wife or an "activist" hostess
undertaking public political or charity work
remains to be seen. But there is no doubt that she
will be an important unofficial force in the
presidential palace.
She will probably
have to tread warily and avoid being openly
associated with controversial policymaking if she
does not want to become the target of scathing
criticism. Each of the 10 women who went before
her have come to be seen as symbols for their
time, and whatever bescarved Hayrunisa chooses to
do, she will no doubt be viewed the same way.
The other first ladies 1.
Latife Usakizade: At age 13, a gypsy
fortune-teller reportedly told her that the man
who would break her heart would have blue eyes and
blond hair. Sure enough, at 22, after a period of
university study in Paris and London, she married
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. At first she kept to the
traditional clothing she had grown up with but was
among the first women in the country to reveal her
hair and adopt Western dress.
Renowned as
a firebrand teetotaller, Usakizade was not beyond
upbraiding the great Pasha for his excessive
drinking and expressing her jealousy of the amount
of time he spent with army colleagues. The
daughter of a high-society family, Usakizade had
the task of transforming what was in effect a
giant barracks into a government mansion. She laid
down a proper protocol for receiving guests and
introduced "ladies days" at the presidential
palace. After the breakdown of their three-year
marriage, during which Ataturk had moved his
cousin and mistress Fikriye into the palace, she
became something of a recluse, never remarrying,
and dying with a badge of Ataturk pinned to her
breast.
2. Mevhibe Inonu:
Born into an Ottoman family, she discarded her
headscarf on her visit to Europe in the 1920s and
quickly established herself as a leader in modern
Euro-Turkish manners. Despite praying regularly
and observing Ramadan fasts and the Festival of
Sacrifice, outwardly she showed a secular face.
Devoted to her husband, Ismet Inonu, Mevhibe
endured his long absences stoically and remained
his steadfast companion. The youngest and most
stylish of the presidential palace wives, she
adopted Western dress but had all her outfits
tailored by the Turkish Girls' Institute. Her only
overt political action was to plead for the lives
of some of her friends who had been sentenced to
death, but her husband gave her short shrift. When
her husband retired from politics, she retreated
to the place she loved best, her kitchen.
3. Reside Bayar: She was
already a grandmother when she came to Cankaya
Palace in May 1950 as the wife of Mamut Celal
Bayar. Known for her religiosity, she never
traveled without a Koran and read from it on a
daily basis. One of the reforms she struggled with
was uncovering her hair, and she had to be asked
to do so by Ataturk himself. She dressed very
simply, more for comfort than for show, and
avoided formal events whenever possible. Her
simple tastes extended themselves to hand-sewing
her own clothes and making clothes for poor
families. Avoiding any expression on political
matters, she told palace staff that she cared
nothing for their political beliefs, they were all
her children. However, she was not without her own
views, and when there was a thaw in relations
between Turkey and Greece and her husband was
invited on an official visit, she refused to
accompany him, saying, "Only yesterday they were
our enemies, how can they be our friends today?"
4. Melahat Gursel: Known as
Magnolia Melahat for her beauty in her youth, she
was married to a fiercely jealous and protective
husband, Cemal Gursel, who didn't even like her to
attend dinners with Ataturk. Known as "Mother" by
all the palace staff, she largely concerned
herself with domestic matters and stayed out of
the spotlight as much as possible. Meetings with
other political wives would send her into a flap
and lead to her telephoning her friends for help.
Never one to get ideas above her station, she
didn't even have ideas for her actual station,
famously saying: "I've never been the partner of a
general or a president - I've always been in the
kitchen." She also refused to accompany her
husband on official trips abroad, claiming the
state did not have enough money to support such
extravagances.
5. Atifet
Sunay: The wife of Cevdet Sunay, Atifet
came to Cankaya Palace in 1966 and was the first
first lady with airs and graces. Condemned for
moving in her things when Reside Bayar was still
packing her bags to leave, Sunay then endured
censure for what was seen as her spendthrift ways.
She entirely redecorated the palace using the best
fabrics and expensive
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