Sıdıka Avar

Sıdıka Avar (born 1901, Cihangir, Istanbul – 1979, Istanbul) was a Turkish teacher known for having been the principal of the Elazığ Girls’ Institute (EGI) between 1939 and 1959. She is described of having been of one of the Turkish national heroines and an example for the Turkification of the Kurdish population.

Early life and education She was born to Mehmet bey, an Ottoman civil servant and a housewife. She trained as a teacher at the Çapa Girls college and from 1922 onwards she worked at the Circassian Girls college in Besiktas, Istanbul. She was sort of idealistic in the Turkification of the Kurds, and developed strategies on how to achieve the demanded result in a cooperative manner. According to Zeynep Türkylmaz, Avar appealed to the necessity to win the hearts and minds of the Kurdish girls and make them love Turkishness. She prohibited the beating of the alumni, but at the same time also the use of their native language. Avar also changed to recruiting process of the students as she asked the Inspector General to be allowed to recruit the girls herself, and that not the soldiers would force the villagers to hand the girls over to the institute. While she prohibited the use of the native language of her students she made use of the Kurdish language while recruiting them. According to her, a hello in Kurdish could be the beginning of a lasting relationship.

Legacy Being described as a national heroine of the Turkish Republic she revolutionized the way the states approach towards the Kurds. Her teachings to the Kurdish population are seen as an example of the Kemalist approach regarding the Kurds.

Personal life She was married and the mother of one child. She divorced he partner in 1937, before she went to teach at the Elazig Girls Institute. The fact that she decided to leave her own chid behind as she went to the east, was contrary to the Kemalist traditional family seen as the basics for a successful country.

Memoirs Dağ Çiçeklerim - My Mountain Flowers