Sabiha Gökçen (, born Ćorović; 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 became the world's first female fighter pilot, at age 23. As an orphan, 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

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, the second airport in Istanbul, is named after her.

Early life

thumb|left|130px|Left to right: Zehra Aylin, Rukiye (Erkin) and Sabiha (Gökçen)

thumb|left|130px|Left to right: Rukiye (Erkin), Sabiha (Gökçen), [[Afet İnan|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. 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.

According to a February 2004 article in the newspaper Agos, Gökçen was actually of Armenian ancestry; see Ancestry controversy.

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

Career

thumb|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". In 2011, the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan apologized for the massacre, describing it as "one of the most tragic events of our near history".

In an interview she gave to Halit Kıvanç in 1956, Sabiha Gökçen stated about the time: "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 Turkish Aeronautical Association's first "Murassa (Jeweled) Medal" for her superior performance in this operation. 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. Tuğlacı also claimed that Gökçen later found out about her Armenian roots when members of her family contacted her from Beirut and that she visited her Armenian relatives there.

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 leaked US consul dispatch penned by an official from the American consulate in Istanbul contained the observation that the entire affair "exposed an ugly streak of racism in Turkish society."

Death and legacy

Gökçen died of heart failure at Gülhane Military Medical Academy on 22 March 2001, her 88th birthday.

thumb|300px|[[Sabiha Gökçen International Airport|Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport]]

Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul is named after her. It opened on 8 January 2001, 2 months before her death.

She is recognized as the first female combat pilot by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Awards and medals

  • Number one Medal of Övünç (Murassa) and certificate of Turkish Aeronautical Association
  • 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|Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Ali Çetinkaya and Sabiha Gökçen in Diyarbakır

File:Sabiha Gokcen with cap.jpg|Sabiha Gökçen with Turkish and foreign officers

File:Breguet 19 Sabiha.jpg|Sabiha Gökçen poses with her Bréguet 19

File:Sabiha Breguet 19.jpg|Sabiha Gökçen reviews her Bréguet 19

</gallery>

See also

  • Bedriye Tahir Gökmen
  • Ahmet Ali Çelikten
  • List of firsts in aviation

References

;Notes

;References

  • Atatürk Arşivi - Sabiha Gökçen: Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6