Today in History – 1 December

İnönü made it his mission to marry others

From the memoirs of Haldun Derin, the private secretary of Atatürk, İsmet İnönü and Celal Bayar:

The evening organized at the Hariciye Pavilion at Çankaya due to the visit Regent Abd ul-Ilah of Iraq paid to Ankara on September 27, 1945 led to the change of status in the slot allocated to “marital status” in my birth certificate. When İnönü asked his chief aide-de-camp if I was married and received the reply, “no,” he advised him to make sure that I’d “get married right away.” It was İnönü’s habit to encourage bachelors under his command to get married. I tolerated such intervention on my right to remain single and the transgression of my constitutional right. There was no higher authority I could appeal to.