November 10, 2025, marked the 87th anniversary of the passing of Türkiye’s beloved Atatürk. Bilkent University commemorated the solemn occasion over the course of two days with several events.
On November 8, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tolga Atalay Ün and featuring Miguel da Silva on viola and Nusret İspir on clarinet, presented a concert in memory of Atatürk. The performance, held at the Bilkent Concert Hall, featured works by İ. D. Oğuz, M. Bruch and P. I. Tchaikovsky.
On the morning of Monday, November 10, members of the Bilkent community gathered at Bilkent’s Atatürk Monument to observe a moment of silence.
A ceremony took place at Mithat Çoruh Auditorium afterwards. It began with a moment of silence and the national anthem, followed by a mini concert performed by the Bilkent Youth Quartet. Next, students Onur Aksüt (LAW), Emre Altuner (CS), Bekir Bartu Cebeci (EE), Umut Erdem (POLS) and Yağmur Yavuzarslan (POLS) presented their HIST200 project, “Bursa Atatürk Evi.”
Following this, Prof. Başak Baysal, Dean of the Faculty of Law, gave a presentation titled “Atatürk, Civil Code and The Revolution of Women.”
In her talk, Prof. Baysal examined the 1926 Turkish Civil Code as a cornerstone of women’s rights, noting Atatürk’s decisive commitment to the legal revolution. She emphasized that law was given a transformative role in the Kemalist revolution and that Atatürk tasked law schools with fostering new legal knowledge.
She underlined that the Civil Code ensured equal citizenship for women and men and linked the entry of Türkiye’s first female lawyer, Süreyya Ağaoğlu, and first female law professor, Prof. Dr. Türkan Rado, directly to this reform. Dr. Baysal stated that she did not consider it appropriate to advance the argument of state feminism in a manner that diminishes the transformative power of the legal revolution. She concluded her remarks by asserting that the Civil Law revolution, in its essence, constituted a revolution for women.
