It is known that the father of modern Turkey – Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – graduated from a military high school in Bitola in 1899. Although there is a lot of information about his success and behavior in school, little is known about his private life.
According to one legend, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s greatest love was from Bitola, namely the beautiful Eleni Karinte.
In the memorial room of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in the museum in Bitola, a letter is presented on a special panel, which Eleni Karinte allegedly sent to her beloved.
Memorial room of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – Bitola Museum…
To Kemal Ataturk, somewhere and sometime!
So many years have passed, and I still, every day, wait for news from you. If you ever receive this letter, remember and see the tears on the paper. The years are passing, everything is being said about you here, something is happening. If you are reading this letter while loving another woman, tear it up and ask her if she believes that you are some Eleni Karinte from Bitola, who wasted her whole life for a man she was with for only one day? And, if you love her, as I love you, don’t tell her anything, let her be happy like you are! If you still remember the girl from the balcony and don’t love anyone else, know that I am waiting for you and that I will wait for you all my life! I know that you will return, that you have not forgotten me. My father died. It has been a whole year since the day he took me from you, locked me at home and didn’t let me go for a whole month. I didn’t cry, I knew that all his locks and prisons were in vain. I saw the man he wanted me to marry only once and he asked me if I could love him? And I told him: “No, I love my first love!” And I never saw him again. My father never forgave me, and I never forgave him. I am no longer young and beautiful as I was then…..
A whole life in one day!Your Eleni Karinte will love you forever and will always be waiting for you.
The house where Eleni Karinte lived on the main street, Shirok Sokak.
Eleni was a beautiful girl from a famous Vlach Christian family with a house on the main street – Shirok Sokak. It is not established whether there really was anything between her and Mustafa Kemal, but according to the above-mentioned legend, her love for a Muslim was a great shame for her family, so she was sent to Lerin (Florina), where she was married to a man she did not love.
The love saga of the Balkan Romeo and Juliet in Bitola has been passed down from generation to generation, but in the last few years it has become really topical. Films have already been made on this topic and more and more tourists who come to Bitola want to see the letter that Eleni never sent and the house in which she lived.
Read more…
https://bitola.info/mk/mustafa-kemal-ataturk-spomen-muzej/
