Collège Sadiki
Turki was born in 1922 in Tunis to a family of Turkish origin. His grandfather, Hacı Hamid Semerci, immigrated from Turkey to Tunisia in 1870 as an Ottoman army major. Turki attended his primary education from 1928 to 1936, then went to the Sadiki College, before going to the Lycée Carnot between 1936 and 1940. He abandoned his studies after the death of his father, Mustapha, in 1939, in order to support his family as he was the eldest of seven brothers. He worked in numerous odd jobs such as an apprentices tailor, clerk, and laborer in oil mill. He married Jamila Skhiri in 1948 after the death of his mother in 1945.