Irfan Orga

Who was Irfan Orga?

İrfan Orga was a Turkish fighter pilot, staff officer, and author, writing in English. He published books on many areas of Turkish life, cookery, and history, as well as a life of Atatürk, and a universally admired autobiography. He also wrote two educational books for children.

Educated at Kuleli Military High School, Harbiye Staff College, and Eskişehir Air College, Orga was born into a wealthy Ottoman Turkish family in Istanbul. Soon, with the outbreak of World War I, his life was changed forever. His father Hüsnü died on the way to the Dardanelles, his uncle Ahmet in Syria. Orga witnessed at first hand not only the hardships of war, but also the Allied Occupation of Constantinople, the end of Ottoman Empire, and the birth of the modern Turkish republic.

Orga opens his iconic memoirs with images of his childhood. He tells of his wealthy bourgeois family in Istanbul, Turkey, in the early 1900s. His mother, Şevkiye, is a young Balkan/Turkish beauty. His father runs his own business. He describes his autocratic grandmother as an eccentric socialite.

Orga tells his stories with multiple layers of complexity. He quickly makes clear his changing environment, with the death of his grandfather, the main provider of two generations of his family and their servants. His father, being a worldly man, understands that war is imminent. He proposes that his family sell their hereditary home in Istanbul, and move to another less expensive place, outside the city. However, reluctance is voiced. Orga captures the fear that a man can be suddenly in charge of a large group of people who depend on him for their survival.