Love wrapped in legends - the doomed love between Kemal Ataturk and Dimitrina Kovacheva There is hardly anyone who has never heard of the creator of the modern Turkish state - Kemal Ataturk. What not everyone knows is that the great and only love of the father of the Turkish nation is a beautiful Bulgarian - Dimitrina Kovacheva, also called Mitty.
There are so many stories of love between Kemal and the beautiful Miti that it is difficult to distinguish myth from truth today. However, their story is compelling, true, and filled with a very strong and ardent love that stays with them until the very end. In 1913, the 32-year-old educated and quite attractive young Major Mustafa Kemal arrived in Sofia as a military attaché, who would later be called Ataturk, translated as "father of the Turks." The young gentleman's good education, intellect and foresight remain unnoticed by the capital's elite. Kemal often visits the homes of prominent Sofia families and makes friends with prominent Bulgarian soldiers, one of them being General Stilian Kovachev. In 1914, at the City Casino, which at that time was the most sophisticated place for secular contacts, the general introduced Ataturk to his dazzlingly beautiful 21-year-old daughter, Dimitrina.
Mitty was an impressive young lady, terribly beautiful, very radiant and extremely intelligent. And the love between the two sparkled at first sight. The brown-eyed blond, who rejected the proposal to marry a wealthy French aristocrat because she did not want to live abroad, had just returned from Switzerland, where she had completed her education. Mythy, as her friends and family have called her, is not the only child of General Kovachev, but is his favorite, his greatest pride, the contemporary of the military is adamant. No wonder - Dimitrina knew three languages, was a pianist and undoubtedly one of the most intelligent young ladies in Sofia high society at the time. Naturally, Kemal has been strongly attracted to Mitty since their first meeting, and with her father's permission, begins dating her. The two spend every spare minute together on long nature walks or as guests at concerts and other social events. Mitty is fascinated by the young diplomat diplomat and openly enjoys his company, never failing and often inviting him to formal dinners at home. With a deep breath, their contemporaries remember and recount a memorable evening in the spring of 1914, in which the grace and beauty of the pure and innocent love between Kemal and Dimitrina is fully revealed. At a ball at the royal palace, the Turkish diplomat, dressed in a special military uniform sent only from Istanbul, dances with the gentle Mitty, transformed into a white dresser. To this day, this toilet is kept as a valuable relic at the Ataturk Museum in Ankara. For Kemal and Mitty, this seemingly ordinary dance was actually something very special - a mutual explanation in love, a silent promise, a fusion of two loving souls into one. And everyone in the hall understood that. Just a few days later, Kemal asks for Mitty's hand, but although he has already become a close friend of the Kovachev family, Stilian Kovachev refuses to give his hand to his beloved daughter. The general is adamant - he respects Kemal very much, but he can't marry his daughter because of religious differences. Although internally devastated by the refusal, the young Turk accepts Kovachev's decision with dignity. Mythy also suffers cruelty, but obeys the will of her family. The two young lovers continue to meet, but in secret, until April 1915, when Mustafa Kemal decides to return to Turkey to participate in World War I.
"You and only you will remain the woman of my life" - will share at his last meeting with Dimitrinka, allowed by General Kovachev, Mustafa Kemal. According to Erol Mutterjimler, a famous explorer of life in secular Turkey, Kemal does not give up his love, and one spring he comes to Sofia again to ask for Mitty's hand. He again refuses and as a farewell gift sends to his beloved a carriage full up with gul - fragrant Bulgarian roses. The ways of Kemal and Dimitrina separate, they never meet again, but their mutual love continues to burn in their hearts. The father of the Turkish nation marries but lives with his wife only two years, realizing that the only woman in his mind and heart is Mitty. Evidence for this is the written memories of Elisaveta Bagriana, who said that at one of her meetings with Ataturk, he told her: “I left my heart in Bulgaria. Tell me, how does Mitty live now? ”When he died in 1938, a single photograph was found among his personal belongings - that of Dimitrina. After Kemal left Bulgaria, Mitty was married to a wealthy lawyer who was sentenced to death after September 9, 1944, but the sentence was later reversed. Dimitrina died of cancer at the age of 80. She has not spoken about Ataturk all her life, so no one in her family and loved ones has ever suspected their great love. And although she has forbidden to mention it until the end of her days, hours before she leaves this world, she shares, "I dreamed of Kemal tonight ...".