Istanbul Firefighters Saved "1936 Miss Turkey" Twice, Now They've Won Her İnheritance

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 25 June 2021)

Dr. Mahmure Birsen Sakaoğlu, who was "Miss Turkey" in 1936, left her

inheritance to the fire department in Istanbul's Fatih district  because 

twice in her life firefighters saved her life, once when she was 4-years-old

and again in her old age.  Dr. Sakaoğlu died on 17 December 2003.  She 

had no children and her husband died four years before she did.  

However (!), her brother, retired Col. Selahattin İzmirli and her sister's

four children filed a suit to have Dr. Sakaoğlu's will voided.  The suit 

went on in the courts for 18 years (!) but now a final decision has awarded

the millions of Dr. Sakaoğlu's inheritance to be distributed among 272

members of the Fatih fire department. 

Rukiye Pınar Aslan, the lawyer for the firefighters explained that 

"The principle is about 12 million TL (about $1.5 million) and there is

about 25 million in interest, which will be distributed first.  Subsequently,

every three months the interest from the principle and income from real

estate will be distributed to the firefighters."

Firefighter İlyas Uşaklı, who rescued Dr. Sakaoğlu from a fire in 2000,

said that "we anticipated that we would each get 70-80,000 TL.  When

we saved her we had no idea who she was.  We were just doing our duty.

When we heard about the inheritance we were amazed.  She is our 

second mother - Mahmure Ana, the mother of firefighters."