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Sabiha, the daughter of Mustafa İzzet Bey, the Chief Secretary of Bursa, and Hayriye Hanım, was born in Bursa on March 22, 1913. His father, Hafız İzzet Bey, who was the Treasurer of Edirne, was exiled to Bursa on the grounds that he was a 'Young Turk'. -
Sabiha, who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by her older brother Neşet, managed to reach Atatürk, who was staying at the Hünkar Mansion near their home, during his visit to Bursa in 1925, when she was only 12 years old, and conveyed that she wanted to study.
Atatürk, with permission from his brother, adopted Sabiha, who was living under difficult conditions, and took her to Ankara. -
Sabiha was educated at Çankaya Primary School, Arnavutköy American College for Girls, today known as Robert High School, and Üsküdar American High School. Due to his illness, he interrupted his education and received treatment in Heybeliada and Vienna.
He spent a while in Paris to improve his French. -
She became interested in aviation, impressed by the glider demonstrations at the opening ceremony of Türkkuşu. With the support of Ataturk, he entered the Turkish Aeronautical Association's Turkish Bird Civil Aviation School and received his high glider badges in Ankara.
Gökçen was sent to Crimea with seven male students and completed his six-month high gliding training at Koktebel High Gliding School. -
He was planning to go to Moscow for a powered aircraft school. However, when he received the news of his adopted sister Zehra's death, he gave up this idea and returned to his country.
Sabiha, who was embittered by the world for a while, started working again with Atatürk's insistence. He received private flight training from Savmi Uçan and Muhittin Bey at Eskişehir Aviation School. He started flying a motorized aircraft for the first time on February 25, 1936. -
Due to Gökçen's success in flight training, Atatürk said to him: “You made me very happy. Now I can explain what I have planned for you. Maybe you will be the first female military pilot in the world. You can imagine how proud it is for a Turkish girl to become the first female military pilot in the world, right? Now I will take immediate action and send you to the Airplane School in Eskişehir. “You will receive special education there.” -
Since girls were not admitted to military schools in those years, they were made to wear a special uniform and received special training at Eskişehir Flight School for 11 months between 1936-1937. During this training, he was accompanied by primary school teacher Nüveyre Uyguç. After receiving his badge, Gökçen served in the 1st Air Regiment in Eskişehir for six months, during which he participated in the Thrace and Aegean maneuvers. -
Turkish Aeronautical Association's number one Övünç (Murassa) Medal and certificate,
The Order of the White Eagle, the highest decoration of the Yugoslav Army, and the army badge,
Romanian Army Aviation Badge,
Commemorative medals awarded for the Thrace and Aegean maneuvers,
Plaque for pioneering women in their professions, given at the ceremony in the Turkish Grand National Assembly on the 50th anniversary of Turkish women gaining the right to vote and be elected -
FAI gold medal, given by the International Aviation Federation to aviators who have achieved outstanding success in all branches of aviation in 1991,
In 1996, he was given the title of "one of the 20 aviators who made their name in world history" at the ceremony at Maxwell Air Base in the USA,
28 plaques given by Ordu, various associations and organizations. -
Gökçen married First Lieutenant Kemal Esiner, a military geography and topography teacher at the Air Force Academy, in 1940 and gave her surname to her husband; but three years later, on January 12, 1943, he lost his wife. -
Sabiha Gökçen died on March 22, 2001, at Gülhane Military Medical Academy, at the age of 88, due to heart failure.