Hodi Gürkan, a woman who according to official records and her identity card was born on 1 July 1894 in Urfa, southeastern Anatolia, and was until now considered to be the oldest woman in Turkey, finally died yesterday at the age of 131.
Turkish media reported that Gürkan – considered by many to be Turkey’s oldest living woman – passed away on 29 July due to health problems related to her advanced age in the village of Binekli, located about 60 kilometres from the city of Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey and about 100 kilometres from the Syrian border, and was buried among great grief of her relatives in the local cemetery.
According to the Turkish government’s official census, the old woman was born on 1 July 1894 – that was the date on her official identity card, which she even showed to the media – which means that, just a month ago, she was 131 years old. Because of her advanced age the woman had several health problems, she could hardly walk unaided and had been suffering from advanced deafness for the last 11 years.
During her long life, she had 7 children, 110 grandchildren and a large number of great-grandchildren; she was also married, but her husband died 48 years ago. Gürkan was born when the Ottoman Empire still existed – curiously, due to the circumstances of her birth, until her death she only could speak Arabic and could not speak Turkish – and saw the birth of the new Turkish Republic after the Turkish War of Independence. If the official population register is correct, Gürkan would not only be the oldest woman in Turkey, but also one of the oldest people in the world.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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