Fatma Hikmet İşmen (1918 – 9 May 2006) was a Greek-born Turkish agricultural engineer with a specialization in

plant pathology Plant pathology or phytopathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Plant pathology involves the study of pathogen identification, disease ...

, as well as a politician who served as a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for the socialist Workers Party of Turkey from 1966 to 1975.

Early life

Fatma Hikmet was born to an

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

Muslim minority family in

Ioannina Ioannina ( ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina (regional unit), Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus (region), Epirus, an Modern regions of Greece, administrative region in northwester ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

in 1918. Her father, Husein Pasha, is claimed to be a descendant of the Albanian ruler Ali Pasha (1740–1822). After the Greco-Turkish War, the family emigrated to Turkey within the frame of

population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, on 30 January 1923, by the governments of Greece and Turkey. It involv ...

agreed by the Lausanne Convention in 1923. They settled in

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. Due to the father's occupation as an army officer, the family migrated to

Tokat Tokat is a city of Turkey in the mid-Black Sea region of Anatolia. It is the seat of Tokat Province and Tokat District.

and

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Sakarya Province, Turkey. Its area is 324 km2, and its population 281,489 (2022). It covers the central and northern part of the agglomeration of Adapazarı and t ...

. Fatma Hikmet completed her primary and secondary education in Istanbul. She attended the Arnavutköy American High School for Girls, before moving to Istanbul Girls High School, finishing in 1933. She then studied agricultural engineering at

Ankara University Ankara University () is a public university, public research university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the History of the Republic of Turkey, formation of the Turkish republ ...

's Faculty of Agriculture, graduating in 1937. She attended courses in England and obtained a

doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in Canada. She became a specialist in

plant diseases Plant diseases are diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, viroids, virus-like orga ...

. After the

Surname Law The Surname Law () of the Republic of Turkey is a law adopted on 21 June 1934, requiring all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of fixed, hereditary surnames. Prior to 1934, Turkish families in the major urban centres had names by which they were ...

in 1934, she and her older sister Fikret adopted the family name "İşmen".

Scientist

İşmen was employed by the

Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

, and served in the Institute of

Pest Control Pest control is the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest (organism), pest; such as any animal, plant or fungus that impacts adversely on human activities or environment. The human response depends on the importance of the da ...

() in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, and from 1945 on in

. She conducted research work as assistant, chief assistant and specialist between 1940 and 1966.

Politician

Encouraged by Adnan Cemgil, whose son was a militant of an armed underground

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

movement, İşmen joined the Workers Party of Turkey (, ''TİP'') in 1964. On 5 June 1966, she entered the Senate of the Republic representing Kocaeli electoral district as the only senator of TİP, which was present in the

Turkish Grand National Assembly The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

with 15 seats won in the 1965 general elections. In her first speech in the senate, she accused the

Directorate of Religious Affairs Directorate may refer to: Contemporary *Directorates of the Scottish Government * Directorate-General, a type of specialised administrative body in the European Union * Directorate-General for External Security, the French external intelligence ag ...

of fueling the discrimination of

Alawites Alawites () are an Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ...

by the

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

that sparked a long-lasting controversy in the senate with Justice Party majority. Her parliamentary works were focused on policies of education, agriculture and

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...

. The TİP was banned after the

1971 Turkish military memorandum The 1971 Turkish military memorandum (), issued on 12 March that year, was the second military intervention to take place in the Republic of Turkey, coming 11 years after its 1960 predecessor. It is known as the "coup by memorandum", which the mi ...

. She remained alone as socialist representative in the

legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

. She resigned after nine years in the senate on 12 October 1975 stating tiredness. In 1976, she published her autobiography about her time in the Senate under the title ''Parlamentoda 9 yıl: TİP Senatörü Olarak 1966 – 1975 Dönemi Parlamento Çalışmaları'' ("9 Years in the Parliament: Parliamentary Works as the Senator of TİP During the Term 1966 – 1975"). In 1991, she co-founded the

Socialist Unity Party The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Ma ...

(, ''SBP''), and in 1994, she was among the founders of the

Freedom and Solidarity Party The Left Party (, often written as SOL Parti) is a secular, socialist political party in Turkey. The Party was founded after the Freedom and Solidarity Party () decided to change its name to the Left Party at the 8th Extraordinary Congress held ...

(, ''ÖDP''). She served in the boards of these political parties.

Later years and death

She was the co-founder and a member of the board of trustees of the "Tarih Vakfı" ("The History Foundation"). In 1992, the foundation awarded in her honor the "Fatma Hikmet İşmen Prize for Supporting Research on

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

" (). Fatma Hikmet İşmen died in Istanbul on 9 May 2006. Two days later, she was buried at

Zincirlikuyu Cemetery The Zincirlikuyu Cemetery () is a modern burial ground in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It is administered by the Metropolitan Municipality. Many prominent figures from the world of politics, business, sports and arts rest here. The ce ...

following the religious ceremony held at

Şişli Mosque The Şişli Mosque () is a mosque located in Şişli Square between the Büyükdere Avenue, the Halaskargazi and Abide-i Hürriyet streets in the Şişli district of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. Due to lack of any mosque in Şişli, which got in ...

. The funeral attendees sang the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

anthem "

The Internationale "The Internationale" is an international anthem that has been adopted as the anthem of various anarchist, communist, socialist, democratic socialist, and social democratic movements. It has been a standard of the socialist movement since ...

". She was survived by her sister Fikret İşmen Kaygı. She was never married due to her anti-marriage views.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ismen, Fatma Hikmet 1918 births 2006 deaths Scientists from Ioannina Greek emigrants to Turkey Alumni of Arnavutköy American High School for Girls Turkish people of Albanian descent Istanbul Girls High School alumni Ankara University alumni Agricultural engineers 20th-century Turkish engineers Women phytopathologists Turkish women civil servants Turkish civil servants 20th-century Turkish women politicians 20th-century Turkish politicians Turkish socialists Turkish Marxists Workers' Party of Turkey politicians Members of the Senate of the Republic (Turkey) Turkish women writers Turkish autobiographers Burials at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery