She was one of the famous women in the
first years of the Republic (B. 1887, Selanik / Ottoman (Thessaloniki / Greece) – D. 31 May 1924, Ankara). She was the daughter of Memduh Hayretin Bey,
the brother of Galip Bey who was the second spouse of Atatürk’s mother Zübeyde
Hanım and Vasfiye Hanım. She married an Egyptian while she was young but
returned to her family home because she couldn’t continue her marriage due to
harem life.
She was a well-educated young woman. She
was speaking French, Greek and playing the oud and piano. She knew Mustafa
Kemal since her childhood and called him “ağabey” (T.N. the elder brother).
During the early periods of the War of Independence, Mustafa Kemal was living
uncared in Çankaya. There were his assistants, stablemen and driver around him
but he was relying on Bekir Çavuş for all personal care services. Bekir Çavuş
was trying to deal with everything but as much as he could. Mithat Bey, one of
Atatürk’s friends from Salonika, witnessed this situation during his visit to
Mustafa Kemal and closely dealt with. He not only identified the need, but also
found the suitable person. The most suitable person could be Fikriye Hanım.
Mithat Bey’s intention was found appropriate by all related people and Fikriye
Hanım was invited to Çankaya within a short time. Soon after she had a grip on
the work routine and made herself loved and respected thanks to her soft
attitudes.
This
order continued until 1923 but meanwhile Fikriye Hanım became sick due to a
lung disease. Mustafa Kemal’s upcoming marriage with Latife Hanım negatively
affected the disease of Fikriye Hanım, who fell for him. The one sided
peevishness she lost herself in worsened her health and she had to go Munich
for treatment unwillingly, influenced by the insistence of Mustafa Kemal.
During that treatment, she learned that marriage, which stretched her nerves,
was realized and immediately returned to Turkey. She stayed in Çankaya Manor
for a few days. When she realized that Latife Hanım didn’t like that visit, she
accepted to live in Istanbul complying the advice of Mustafa Kemal. When she
left Çankaya, she stayed in a city hotel for about two days and found her lost
suitcase. In that suitcase, there was a gift she brought to Mustafa Kemal from
Munich. When she went to Çankaya once more in order to give that gift to Mustafa
Kemal before leaving Ankara, however Rüsuhi Bey, a chief assistant, who did not
know her, prevented her from seeing Mustafa Kemal. With this bad mood, Fikriye
Hanım left Çankaya Manor by a car and committed suicide with a gun a few hundred
meters ahead. In the hospital she was taken to, she couldn’t survive despite
the special care exhibited upon the directive of Mustafa Kemal.
On the other hand, in the novel based on
documents named Gazi ve Fikriye, written by Hıfzı Topuz, it is written
that, Fikriye Hanım was treated in the hospital from her suicide attempt till
her death, and that she died from the infection of the bullet wound and from
the worsened tuberculosis, not from the bullet wound itself. Researcher Eriş
Ülger, based on the memories of Ata’s assistant Salih Bozok, asserts that her
grave is in Kuğulu Park. On the other hand, Fatih Bayhan, the author of Fikriye
Hanım, has said that her grave was in the old cemetery in Ulus, Ankara, on
which there are bank buildings today. Can Dündar has said that she was buried
to the location in Ankara Ethnography Museum where a huge sculpture of Atatürk
on a horse is placed.