Afet İnan


Ayşe Afet İnan was a Turkish historian and sociologist. She was one of the eight adopted daughters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Biography

Afet İnan was born to İsmail Hakkı Bey and Şehzane Hanım from Doyran, in 1908 in the district of Kesendire in Salonica Vilayet.
She and her family emigrated to Adapazarı because of the Balkan Wars. She started primary school in Adapazarı on March 4, 1913.　They then moved to Ankara, Mihalıççık, Karaoğlan, Biga. Her mother Şehzane died of tuberculosis on May 15, 1915. Since her father then married a young girl, Ayşe Afet decided to become a teacher to earn her own living. When they lived in Biga, her younger sister Nezihe was born to her father Ismail Hakki and his second wife. In 1920, she finished her six years of primary education. In 1921, they settled to Alanya. In 1922, she got a teaching qualification in Elmalı and was assigned as headteacher to Elmalı Girls' School. She graduated from the Bursa Teachers College for Girls in 1925, and started to work as a primary school teacher in Izmir. She met Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in October of the same year during his visit to Izmir.
Afet was sent in 1925 by Atatürk to Lausanne, Switzerland, to learn French. After returning to Turkey in 1927, she attended the French Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul. On finishing there she was appointed as a secondary school teacher for history. In 1935, Afet İnan went to Switzerland again and was a student of Eugène Pittard at the University of Geneva between 1936 and 1938. In 1939, after graduating, she obtained a PhD in sociology. In 1950, she became a professor at the University of Ankara.
She was the co-founder and a leading member of the Turkish Historical Society.
İnan died on June 8, 1985, in Ankara, leaving behind her daughter Arı and her son Demir.
The "Afet İnan Historical Studies Award" is given biennially by the Turkish History Foundation in cooperation with İnan's family.

Selected bibliography