Günseli Başar (22 January 1932 – 20 April 2013) was a Turkish

beauty contest A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

ant and columnist who was crowned

Miss Turkey Miss Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Güzellik Kraliçesi) is a national beauty pageant in Turkey. The pageant was founded in 1929, where the winners titled as Miss Turkey Universe, Miss Turkey World and Miss Turkey Supranational. History Miss Turk ...

1951 and

Miss Europe Miss Europe is a beauty pageant for European women from all over Europe. It was established in February 1927 by Fanamet, the European distributor of Paramount, as a one-off event where the winner was to star in a film directed by Friedrich ...

1952.

Biography

Başar was born on February 22, 1932, to an officer's family in İstanbul, where her father was stationed. However, her birth was registered some time later in

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...

due to her father's transfer. Her great-grand uncle was Grand Vizier

Halil Rifat Pasha Halil Rifat Pasha ( Modern Turkish: ''Halil Rıfat Paşa''; 1820According to the obituary in The Times, he was born about 1807. This would make him almost 95 years old at the time of his death. Other sources give 1820.–9 November 1901) was an ...

, founder of the almshouse ( tr, Darülaceze) in Istanbul and commissioner of the

İzmir Clock Tower İzmir Clock Tower ( tr, İzmir Saat Kulesi) is a historic clock tower located at the Konak Square in the Konak district of İzmir, Turkey. It is considered as the main landmark of the city. History Kâmil Pasha, the then-Governor of Aidin ...

. She is of

Rumelian Turkish Balkan Gagauz Turkish, or Rumelian Turkish ( tr, Rumeli Türkçesi), is a Turkic language spoken in European Turkey, in Dulovo and the Deliorman area in Bulgaria, the Prizren area in Kosovo and the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of North Macedon ...

, Circassian and

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

descent. Günseli Başar completed her secondary education at Erenköy Girls High School in Istanbul. While studying sculpture at the Fine Arts Academy in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

, Günseli participated at a beauty pageant organized by the newspaper ''

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: " Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Pr ...

'', and won the title

1951 on October 13, 1951. The next year, she represented her country at the Miss Europe beauty contest held in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, and became Turkey's first ever Miss Europe winner on August 20, 1952. She dropped out of her arts education, and at the age of 23, married Mehmet Kutsi Beğdeş, a charitable businessman. Günseli made her second marriage in 1959 to the Mayor of

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...

, Faruk Tunca. Both her marriages were short-lived. She has one daughter, Aslı, from her second marriage and two granddaughters. In 1977, she accepted an offer from Erol Simavi, the owner of the daily newspaper ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

'', to write a column under the title "Günseli Oradaydı" (literally: "Günseli Was There") in order to finance her daughter's education abroad. After only one year of travelling across the country to write her column, she was involved in a traffic accident in which she was seriously injured. She underwent repeated operations on her head and arm. After recovering she did not return to her writing career. Günseli Başar lived in

Bodrum Bodrum () is a port city in Muğla Province, southwestern Turkey, at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Its population was 35,795 at the 2012 census, with a total of 136,317 inhabitants residing within the district's borders. Known in ancient ...

, Turkey until her death on 20 April 2013 at the age of 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basar, Gunseli 1932 births 2013 deaths Erenköy Girls High School alumni Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul alumni Miss Europe winners Miss Turkey winners Turkish columnists Turkish people of Circassian descent Turkish people of Georgian descent Hürriyet people Turkish women columnists