page_title: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's personal life
section_title: Wife
hierarchical_section_title: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's personal life / Family / Wife
caption_attribution_description: Türkçe: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ve Latife Uşşaki-Adana (1923).English: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his wife Latife Uşşaki-Adana (1923).Français&#160;: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk et son épouse Latife Uşşaki-Adana (1923).Español: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk y su esposa Latife Uşşaki-Adana (1923).Deutsch: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk und seine Frau Latife Uşşaki-Adana(1923).Azərbaycanca: Mustafa Kamal Atatürk və onun həyat yoldaşı Lətifə Uşşaqi-Adana (1923).العربية: مصطفى كمال أتاتورك وزوجته لطيفة هانم.
context_page_description: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded the Republic of Turkey, and served as its president from 1923 until his death in 1938. His personal life has been the subject of numerous studies. According to Turkish historian Kemal H. Karpat, Atatürk's recent bibliography included 7,010 different sources. Atatürk's personal life has its controversies, ranging from where he was born to his correct full name. The details of his marriage have always been a subject of debate. His religious beliefs were discussed in Turkish political life as recently as the Republic protests during the 2007 presidential election.
  Mustafa Kemal's personality has been an important subject both for scholars and the general public. Much of substantial personal information about him comes from memoirs by his associates, who were at times his rivals, and friends. Some credible information originates from Ali Fuat Cebesoy, Kâzım Karabekir, Halide Edib Adıvar, Kılıç Ali, Falih Rıfkı Atay, Afet İnan, there is also secondary analysis by Patrick Balfour, the 3rd Baron Kinross, and, most recently, Vamık D. Volkan and Norman Itzkowitz.
context_section_description: Atatürk married only once, to Latife Uşaklıgil (or Uşşaki); a multilingual, and self-confident woman who was educated in Europe and came from an established, ship-owning family from Smyrna (now Izmir).
  Atatürk met Latife during the recapture of occupied Smyrna on 8 September 1922. Kemal was invited to Uşaklıgil residence during his stay in Smyrna. He had chance to observe Latife closely. Their initial acquaintanceship period lasted a relatively short time as he had to return to Angora (now Ankara) on 2 October. Kemal opened up his interest to Latife by asking her "Don't go anywhere. Wait for me." On 29 January 1923, he arranged for the permission to marry from her family, with the assistance of the chief of staff Fevzi Çakmak. Kâzım Karabekir was present at their wedding. These were not random decisions.
  In Turkish culture, the groom asks his family or respected people, with whom he has close relationships, to perform this act. Latife did not cover her face during the wedding, though during this period it was the tradition for brides to do so. They did not have a honeymoon just after the wedding. The elections for the parliament were coming. He received the representatives of local newspapers next day of his wedding. He prepared for his public speech on 2 February. The honeymoon, an Anatolian tour, was a chance to show his wife's unveiled face as a role model for modern Turkish women. "It's not just a honeymoon, it's a lesson in reform," one observer remarked.
  As a First Lady, she was part of the women's emancipation movement, which started in Turkey in the early 1920s. Latife showed her face to the world with a defiance that shocked and delighted onlookers. She did not wear a hijab but covered her head with a headscarf (Turkish: Başörtüsü). She urged Turkish women to do the same and lobbied for women's suffrage. Atatürk passed the law giving women the right to vote after he was elected.
  Latife insisted on accompanying him to the eastern towns even though the wives of other officials stopped at Samsun and did not travel further to the devastated east. The attention of Atatürk was directed to conventional gatherings. The balance was hard to establish. At Erzurum, Latife and Kemal reached a breaking point. They had a public quarrel. Atatürk asked Latife to go to Angora, with his trusted ADC Salih Bozok. They were divorced on 5 August 1925. The circumstances of their divorce remain publicly unknown. A 25-year-old court order banned the publishing of his former wife's diaries and letters, which might have contained information on the matter. The Turkish History Foundation kept the letters since 1975. Upon expiration of the court order, the Turkish History Foundation said that Latife Uşaklıgil's family demanded that the letters were not to be disclosed.
caption: Latife and Kemal at one of the tours of Anatolia.
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