Nermin Abadan Unat: A magnificent touch to humanity

We have bid farewell to a century-old plane tree, our legendary professor Nermin Abadan Unat, as she journeys into eternity. A magnificent person who added meaning to humanity. A life of dignity, woven with struggle. A strong woman who defied all challenges. A valuable professor who set an example for her students with her energy, dynamism, and diligence. A respected scientist who successfully represented her country all over the world. An uncompromising Kemalist and a magnificent woman of the Republic. 

Nermin Abadan Unat was one of the legendary professors of Ankara University's Faculty of Political Sciences and the School of Press and Broadcasting established within it. She began her professional life in journalism, taking her place among Turkey's first female journalists. Her interest in the profession of journalism must not have ended after she began her academic career, as she pioneered the establishment of the School of Press and Broadcasting and was instrumental in bringing many qualified journalists into the Turkish press. 

Professor Nermin was a highly qualified academic, a productive scientist, and a professor who dedicated herself to her students. But at the same time, she was a true intellectual who pondered world and national issues and served in political and social spheres. With her strong educational background, contemporary way of thinking, and vision, our Professor Nermin successfully represented her country, her society, the Turkish people, and especially Turkish women on a global level. 

Being a student of Professor Nermin was a great stroke of luck and an important opportunity. Especially as a female academic, I feel the privilege of this much more deeply and understand it much more strongly as the years go by. It is impossible to forget her excitement that permeated the entire campus and classrooms, her enthusiastic gaze that penetrated to our very bones, her warm, loving smile, but also her anxious facial expression that occasionally made us tremble. Because she took her students and the youth seriously. Because she was a thinker who dedicated her existence to the existence of the Republic of Turkey. That is why she nurtured every moment of her life with enthusiasm, hope, and love. Like every intellectual, she would occasionally worry and fall into pessimism on behalf of her country and humanity. That is when we, the students of Professor Nermin, would also be overcome with a tremor. Fortunately, the tremors of anxiety and pessimism that seeped into us did not last long. With a single word from our Professor Nermin, a smile, or that enthusiastic gaze that summoned hope, we would all set sail for enthusiasm together. Because we, the students of Professor Nermin, knew that on the path illuminated by Atatürk, we would turn our compasses toward the sun and steer our engines toward the blue horizons.

Nermin Abadan Unat was a legend in the true sense of the word. A fourteen-year-old girl who set out from Hungary to build a life for herself in the liberal atmosphere of the Republic founded by Atatürk. The light of Mustafa Kemal gave her so much hope and paved the way for her that, as a result of a difficult struggle, she managed to become one of the "firsts" and "bests" of Turkey. A true legend who continued her journey of success with titles such as one of the very few first female journalists in Turkey, one of the very few first female academics, the first female senator, and so on. Professor Nermin is a legend who built her own life in line with her own choices. In the words of Sedef Kabaş, Nermin Abadan Unat is a woman who chose her own homeland. A magnificent person who determined her language, her understanding of faith, her intellectual journey, and her perspective on life entirely through her own choices.

I had the opportunity to meet Professor Nermin during my master's studies. I took courses from her such as Political Communication, Communication Theories, and Public Opinion. Meeting her and starting to take classes from her was a turning point for me. I wanted to be an academic, but meeting Professor Nermin was decisive in many respects for this career plan. I was also following all the other courses that Professor Nermin was teaching outside of the program I belonged to. The fact that she knew about my academic career plan and noticed my efforts was a separate motivation for me. The moments when she opened her library at the university and at home entirely to me, and called me to her side at every opportunity to have academic conversations, were perhaps the most enjoyable moments of my student life leading to academia. I loved spending time with Professor Nermin. With her inexhaustible energy, enthusiasm, curiosity for reading and writing, dedication to academic life, and honorable stance, she became my idol. Professor Nermin nurtured my academic ideals. I owe so much to her for the consolidation of my belief in this direction, the strengthening of my hope, and the raising of my motivation. I can never forget the influence of my Professor Nermin on my academic journey, the shaping of my life philosophy, the attitude I formed regarding humanity, my love for my country, and, of course, my commitment to the values of the Republic. 

Having known Professor Nermin, every encounter with her, and every shared moment is an important added value on behalf of humanity and for the sake of building a more humane world. I am glad I knew her, and I am glad I was her student. We will continue to keep her alive with the values she passed on to us. We have bid farewell to our Professor Nermin into eternity with the pride of the magnificent imprint she left on our world and humanity. May she rest in light, and may the intellectual legacy she left behind advance into the future.