Gökçen made headlines and sparked controversy, in 2004, when Hrant Dink, a journalist of Turkish-Armenian descent, published an interview with a person claiming to be Sabiha's niece that claimed that she was of Armenian origin. Many contested the matter, including her adopted sister and the last living daughter of Atatürk, Ülkü Adatepe, disputing this during an interview and stating that Sabiha was of Bosniak ancestry. According to Adatepe, Sabiha's mother Hayriye and father Mustafa İzzet were ethnic Bosniaks. The notion that Gökçen could have been Armenian caused controversy in the country; the Turkish General Staff said 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 US consul dispatch leaked by WikiLeaks and penned by an official from the consulate in Istanbul observed that the entire affair "exposed an ugly streak of racism in Turkish society." It is also believed that the affair was one of the reasons that led to Hrant Dink's assassination in Istanbul in January 2007.