There are so many stories about the love between Kemal and the beautiful Mitti that today it is difficult to distinguish myth from truth. Still, their story is compelling, true, and filled with a very strong and passionate love that stays with them until their very end.
Kemal began to frequently visit the homes of prominent Sofia families and befriend prominent Bulgarian military personnel, one of whom was General Stiliyan Kovachev. In 1914, in the City Casino, which at that time was the most sophisticated place for social contacts, the general met Atatürk with his dazzlingly beautiful 21-year-old daughter, Dimitrina.
Mitti was an impressive young lady, hauntingly beautiful, very radiant and extremely intelligent. And the love between the two ignited at first sight.
The brown-eyed blonde beauty, who turned down a marriage proposal from a wealthy French aristocrat because she didn't want to live abroad, has just returned from Switzerland, where she completed her education. Mitti, as her friends and family called her, is not General Kovachev's only child, but she is his favorite, his greatest pride, contemporaries of the military man say categorically.
And no wonder - Dimitrina knew three languages, was an accomplished pianist and undoubtedly one of the most intelligent young ladies in Sofia's high society at that time.
Naturally, Kemal is strongly attracted to Mitti from their first meeting and, with her father's permission, begins dating her. The two spend every free minute together on long walks in nature or as guests at concerts and other social events. Mitti is fascinated by the young military diplomat and openly enjoys his company, often inviting him to formal dinners at her home.
With bated breath, their contemporaries remember and tell about a memorable evening in the spring of 1914, in which the grace and beauty of the pure and innocent love between Kemal and Dimitrina was fully revealed. At a ball in the royal palace, the Turkish diplomat, dressed in a special military uniform sent all the way from Istanbul, dances with the gentle Mitti, who has changed into a white outfit.
To this day, this outfit is kept as a precious relic in the Atatürk Museum in Ankara. For Kemal and Mitti, this seemingly ordinary dance was actually something much more special - a mutual explanation of love, a silent promise, the merging of two loving souls into one. And everyone in the hall understood this.
Just a few days later, Kemal asks for Mitti's hand in marriage, but even though he has already become a close friend of the Kovachevi family, Stiliyan Kovachev refuses to give him the hand of his beloved daughter. The general is adamant - he respects Kemal a lot, but he cannot marry his daughter to him because of religious differences. Although internally devastated by the refusal, the young Turk accepts Kovachev's decision with dignity. Mitti, on the other hand, also suffers severely, but submits to the will of her family.
The two young lovers continued to meet, but secretly, until April 1915, when Mustafa Kemal decided to return to Turkey to participate in the First World War.
"You and only you will remain the woman of my life" - Mustafa Kemal will share during his last meeting with Dimitrina, allowed by General Kovachev.
According to Erol Mütterjimler, a famous researcher of life in secular Turkey, Kemal did not give up his love, and one spring day he came to Sofia again to ask for Mitti's hand in marriage. Again he is refused and as a parting gift he sends his beloved a carriage filled to the brim with guls - fragrant Bulgarian roses.
Kemal and Dimitrina's paths diverge, they never meet again, but their mutual love continues to burn in their hearts. The father of the Turkish nation married, but lived with his wife for only two years, realizing that the only woman in his thoughts and heart was Mitti.
Proof of this is the written memories of Elisaveta Bagriana, who says that during one of her meetings with Atatürk, he told her: "I left my heart in Bulgaria. Tell me, how is Mitti living now?" When he died in 1938, a single photograph was found among his personal belongings - that of Dimitrina.
After Kemal's departure from Bulgaria, Mitti was forcibly married to a rich lawyer, who was sentenced to death on September 9, 1944, but the sentence was later overturned. Dimitrina died of cancer at the age of 80.
Throughout her life, she did not speak about Atatürk, therefore none of her family and relatives suspected of their great love. And although she forbade herself to mention him until the end of her days, hours before she left this world, she shared: "That night I dreamed of Kemal...".
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