A Different Kind of Father's Day Story

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 18 June 2018)


Family matters...even more when it has slipped away.

When Gülseren Bintaş (74)  was young she worked in a shop near
Balıkesir University's Necatibey Teacher-training Faculty.  Gülseren
hanım had a relationship with İbrahim F., who was studying at the
faculty.  After the two split up, Gülseren hanım  planned to go to
Germany to work but when she learned she was pregnant she
abandoned her plans.

Gülseren hanım informed İbrahim F. of her pregnancy but he was
indifferent.  So, as her pregnancy progressed Bintaş moved to İzmir
to avoid her family finding out.  Bintaş named her son 'Kenan' and
had him registered with her surname, writing in 'Mithat Bintaş' as the
boy's father.  She told Kenan that his father was a soldier who died in
combat but added that the father didn't want Kenan so Bintaş
burned all of his photos.

Kenan Bintaş, now a printer, searched the 'e-devlet' (Turkish state
registry) system for any trace of 'Mithat Bintaş' but became
suspicious when nothing turned up.  He asked his mother but she
avoided a direct answer so Kenan checked records in Balıkesir but
again came up empty-handed.  Finally, Gülseren hanım told Kenan
about İbrahim F., now a retired school teacher.

Kenan tracked down İbrahim F. in Balıkesir's Ayvalık district but
İbrahim F. told him "I can't register you as my child. I have a
family and two children.  I can only give you my car and a flat."
In response, Kenan filed a suit against İbrahim F., asking the court
for 10,000 TL (about $2,200) for each year he lived without a
father = 530,000 TL.

As for his mother Gülseren hanım, Kenan had this to say: "My
mother worked at all sorts of jobs to bring me up. I don't blame
her at all.  On the contrary, I'm so grateful to her for raising me.
But my real father was very cold toward me.  I grew up without
a father.  This is not about money.  If I win the suit I'll give a
portion of it to charity."