Turkish Journalist Plans U.S.-T ype Orphan School
By Jessie A sh A rn d t
W om an's E d ito r of T he C h ris tia n S cience M on ito r
S till closer ties of friendship jtw een T urkey an d the U nited tates a re prom ised for the future, n the opinion of Mrs. R ebia Tev- flk Basokcu, w ho has m ade many friends during h e r stay in the U nited States.
Mrs. Basokcu, w ho has been in F rance for some years as a re p resen tativ e of the Istan bul new s paper, V atan, cam e to A m erica for a v isit and bro u ght w ith h er an idea in w hich she hopes for
cooperation from individual
A m ericans. She desires to estab lish a school in T urkey for orphans of T u rk ish m en who fought side by side w ith A m er icans in K orea.
She w ould have an A m erican couple a t the head of it an d d e velop th e school along the lines of those in th e U nited States. It w ould be h e r purpose, she says, to give th e young people an u n
d erstanding of A m erica and
A m ericans w hile providing a
w ell-rounded education w hich
w ould equip them to be good and
useful citizens of th e ir own
country,
Mrs. Basokcu cites h er own place as a foreign correspondent fo r an outstanding T urkish new s p aper as indication of how fa r j along th e road of progress T urkey —its w om en included—has come since th e liberating rule of K em al A taturk.
F ortress A gainst Aggressors “T hanks to its strong arm y and
i
the far-sigh ted courageous poli- ! cies p ursued by th e T urkish G ov- | em in ent, T urkey stands like a fortress in th e w ay of w ould-beinvaders,” Mrs. Basokcu
de-d a re de-d . “T urk' ;y is also the key th a t guards th e roads leading to Europe, A irie r i, and Asia. We T u rk s w ill face death for our free dom and o ur independence. We are w illing to ; make m any sacri fices to m ainta) 1 this large arm y
w hich is the afeguard of ou r
independence.”
M arshall / l i d A ppreciated M rs. Basok' :u ex p ressed appre' ciation for tl îe aid th e M arshall P la n h ad bee n to h e r country.
In the ’20’s sm d ’30’s, Mrs. B asok cu w as in C lerm any w here she had a" fashio n salon. Seeing the m enace of th e rise of Fascism, she m oved h e r salon to F rance, rem aining th e re till th e G erm an occupation in 1940, w hen she re tu rn ed to Istan bul. Because of her know ledge of the E uropean sit uation, she w as asked to give a series of lectures, and as a direct result of these was offered a posi tion by th e publisher of V atan, w riting on world affairs. L ater | she published a book, “My T w en- ity Y ears in Eu-ope.”
I A fter th e war, she re tu rn e d .to P aris to rep resu it h e r pap er and
^
W jr ¿L
also to contribute occasional a rti cles to F rench jo urnals. H er trip to th e U nited S tates opened fo r h e r as readily as h ad o th er op portunities.
She m et a M erchant M arine of ficer w ho asked if she w ould w rit* a series of articles on th e M er chant N avy. She gladly com plied and the trip to th is co u n try on
a
m erch an t vessel follow ed. A fter tw o m onths here, she leaves fo r Morocco to obtain additio nal in form ation for th e series.She calls herself a v o lu n teer fo r hum anity, because w hile she d oei h er w ork as a jo u rn alist, she also keeps in m ind needs of people in h e r country and m eans of helping to m eet them . W hile she w as here, she arran g ed fo r an exchange of letters betw een A m erican w om en an d w idow s of a n u m ber of T urkish v e teran s of the K orean w ar and she hopes these friendly ties w ill grow.
.She w ould like to build h e r school w ith funds supplied by dollar contributions from a g re a t n u m b er of individual A m ericans, thus to spread a b ro ad er in te re st in T urkey in this country, and a deeper sense of friendship fo r A m erica in h e r n ativ e land.
