Like Dylan, Another American With Turkish Roots

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 21 October 2016)

//ed. note: see recent TNT report on Nobel Laureate Bob 
Dylan's Turkish roots.//

dylan a Turk


Rose Hilmey relates Turkish legacy to Minister Tüfenkçi.
Handling the translation duties is the lovely and talented
Bayan Pınar Eser Hanımefendi.


Customs and Trade Minister Bülent Tüfenkçi was met with a
surprise request during his visit to the U.S.  While Tüfenkçi
was in Buffalo on the U.S.-Canada border to learn about
procedures at the border gate, Rose Hilmey, the chief of the
Buffalo Regional Border Protection unit, provided information
to the minister.

Afterwards, Hilmey explained to Tüfenkçi that her grandfather
came to the U.S. from Elazığ and married and settled in the
States.  She asked Tüfenkçi for help in finding her relatives now
living in Turkey.  The minister, in turn, invited Hilmey to come
to Turkey and told her he would help her find her relatives.


Elazığ's previous name was "Mamuretülaziz"

Hilmey shared some documents related to her grandfather with
Tüfenkçi, showing that her grandfather Bekir, son of Mustafa,
was born in Elazığ in 1889 and that his mother's name was
Zeynep.


                        Elazığ province

In the 19th century, under the reign of Mahmud II, the 
governor Reşid Mehmed Pasha started an expansion 
of Mezre, a suburb located on the plain below Kharput.
During the reign of Sultan Abdülazîz, military barracks,
a hospital and a governor's mansion were built to 
accommodate the seat of a new vilâyet (province).
The town was renamed "Mamuretülaziz" (Ottoman Turkish:
معمورة العزيز ‎ made prosperous by Aziz in Ottoman Turkish)
in 1866 on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the 
enthronement of Sultan Abdülaziz, although he was not 
the initial founder. In time the city became known as "Elâzîz"
due to its ease of pronunciation. On November 17, 1937,
President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk changed the name of 
the city to "Elazık". However, since this was hard to 
pronounce in Turkish, on December 10, 1937 the 
government  changed the city's name to its final form,
"Elazığ".