Ask Memet: Is Mother’s Day celebrated in Turkey?

  • Published
  • By Mehmet Birbiri
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Editor's note: Ask Mehmet is a forum for people to ask questions about the local area, as well as the outer confines of the region and the country as a whole. To submit a question, send an e-mail with the subject "Ask Mehmet" to 39abw.pa@us.af.mil. Then, look for an answer to the question on the 39th Air Base Wing's official website at www.incirlik.af.mil and Incirlik Air Base's Facebook page. This article contained information written by Mrs. Ulcaz Olgun Sahin, the chairperson of Adana Tourism Association.

Mehmet, is Mother's Day celebrated in Turkey?

Mother's Day is observed and celebrated in Turkey the same day as the rest of the world. Flowers and various gifts are given to mothers on that day.
In fact, Islam also gives a special importance to mothers. Prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam, praised mothers frequently, and had numerous saying about mothers to draw attention and respect towards them. The most known saying of Prophet Mohammad about mothers is "Heaven lies under the feet of mothers."

I forward my respects and greetings to the Turkish, American and all mothers.

The Hittites' queen Pudu-Hepa is one of the most distinguished and respected women in the history of Anatolia.

QUEEN PUDU-HEPA, THE WOMAN FROM CUKUROVA

Cukurova is the region covering Adana, Mersin and Hatay provinces today. Anatolia, or Asia Minor as it is called in history books, is the peninsula surrounded with the Black Sea in north, Marmara and Aegean in the west and Mediterranean in the south. It is the bulk portion of Turkey in Asia.

Pudu-Hepa was the daughter of priest Pentip-Sharri in Kizzuwadna, the priest of Ishtar, the goddess of law and war. She was a priestess of Ishtar as well. Kizzuwadna was the name of the kingdom founded around Adana today, which existed until 13th century B.C. It was a strong kingdom that had strong relations with the Hittites' kingdom.

Pudu-Hepa married Hattusilis III, the brother of the Hittite King Muwatallis, in Lawazantiya, today's village of Sar, an ancient town north of Adana. Hattusilis III married Pudu-Hepa by the order of goddess Ishtar, via a dream, on his way back home after the war with the Egyptians in 1285 B.C., in Kadesh. All that information is engraved on tablets about her biography.

Ten years after getting married Pudu-Hepa, became the queen of Hittites. She stamped, or sealed, the Kadesh Peace Agreement alongside her husband Hattusilis III, who was then king, with equal rights and power. Pharaoh Ramses II represented Egypt by himself and stamped the other side of the Kadesh Peace Agreement, the very first written agreement in history.

A copper replica of the Kadesh Peace Agreement decorates the wall of the General Assembly Hall in the United Nations building as a very important document of world history. By having her seal on such an important international agreement, Pudu-Hepa gets the title of 'the first woman in world politics and was the first representative of the women's rights movement.

Also, by putting her seal on a trade and legal agreement, she also got the title of being the first woman in trade and legal history.
Pudu-Hepa was active not only with state and international relations, but also very active and effective in her country's social life. She had various charitable works, protected and fed orphans, freed slaves, and founded many charity foundations. We can very proudly say that the very first written document of the foundations in Turkey is a Hittite deed of trust of a pious foundation written in 1280 B.C.

The tradition of collecting and saving official documents in Anatolia started during Pudu-Hepa's reign. She tasked the chief secretary of the palace to collect the tablets about Kizzuwadna, her home state.

With the works she did and her successes, Pudu-Hepa gained a very special and distinctive place among other queens.