TURKEY: Ghazi’s Will

Before President Kamal Atatürk of Turkey died he deeded most of his farms and factories to the State. Last week the ghazi’s last testament, written in his own hand in September, turned over remaining $3,750,000 worth of property to the management of the Republican People’s Party, sole official political organization of the country. Under the Moslem inheritance laws of the sultans, no woman shared in a man’s estate. Under the will of Atatürk, stanch advocate of woman’s equal rights, women were almost the sole beneficiaries. To the party the ghazi gave these directions: pay his surviving sister $10,000 yearly; provide varying fixed incomes for his five adopted daughters; buy Adopted Daughter and Airwoman Sahiba Gokcen a house; see that the two children of President Ismet Inönü, the ghazi’s successor, get the best possible education; support the Society for Promulgation of the Turkish Language and History, Atatürk’s pet hobby.