Keriman Halis Ece

Of Ubykh Circassian origin,{{Cite web |title=HINCAL ULUÇ - Dünya Güzeli!.. |url=https://www.sabah.com.tr/yazarlar/uluc/2012/02/01/dunya-guzeli |access-date=2021-07-04 |website=Sabah |language=tr}}Sefer E. Berzeg, Soçi'nin Sürgündeki Sahipleri: Çerkes-Vubıhlar, Kafkasya Gerçeği, 1998, p. 9.Wubıh’lar İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil gibi siyasetçi, Taha Carım gibi diplomat, Keriman Halis gibi dünya güzeli yetiştiren bir toplumdu. Wubıh’lar, bu dünyaya Rusların sayesinde 21 Mayıs 1864’te elveda demişti. Rusların bu jenositini Kafkasyalılar kadar tarih de affetmeyecektir. (Recep Albayrak), [https://archive.today/20130418192104/http://www.simav.gov.tr/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1024&FORUM_ID=78&CAT_ID=26&Forum_Title=Recep+ALBAYRAK&Topic_Title=Simav+%C7erkesleri "Simav Çerkezleri"], T.C. Simav Kaymakamlığı, June 19, 2012. Keriman Halis was born in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, as one of the six children of a merchant from Hacıosman, Manyas, Tevfik Halis Bey, in 1913. She grew up in a family with a religious background.{{Cite book|last=King|first=Charles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MxF0AwAAQBAJ&q=Keriman+Halis+grandfather&pg=PT154|title=Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul|date=2014-09-15|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-24578-3|language=en}} During her childhood, her family lived in Fındıkzade, where she was surrounded by French nannies. Her grandfather was a sheikh al-Islam, an advisor to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V.{{Cite news|date=2 October 1932|title=Fantastic Farce of the Sheik and the Beauty Queens|work=The Atlanta Constitution}} According to the Atlanta Constitution, her grandfather was a conservative mighty religious man who kept her secluded from the public in a palace in order to hide her beauty from the public. Only as environment for women became more liberal following the establishment of Turkey was she allowed to interact with the public with the consent of her grandfather. He father was approached several times in order to allow her to compete in beauty contests which he finally allowed in 1932. She participated in the 1932 Miss Turkey beauty pageant which had been organized by the newspaper Cumhuriyet since 1929.{{Cite book|last=Bein|first=Amit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhA6DwAAQBAJ|title=Kemalist Turkey and the Middle East|date=2017-11-09|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-19800-5|pages=143–144|language=en}} She was elected the most beautiful Turkish woman in the contest held on July 2, 1932, in İstanbul among eight candidates. Keriman Halis was sent then to the International Pageant of Pulchritude contest held in Spa, Belgium to represent Turkey. On July 31, 1932, she finished first among competitors from 27 countries, achieving Turkey's first title at an international beauty contest after three years only of its existence and less than a decade after the founding of the Republic.http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=republics-first-beauty-queens-chosen-amid-tense-debate-2010-10-26 {{Dead link| date=June 2025}} Turkish Republic's first beauty queens chosen amid tense debate - Hurriyet - October 30, 2010 In 1933 she visited Egypt in a tour organized in cooperation with the Turkish Embassy in Egypt.

Her uncle was a renowned operetta composer, Muhlis Sabahattin Ezgi and her aunt a well-known musician and composer Neveser Kökdeş. Her brother is one of the former presidents of the Turkish sports club Galatasaray S.K., Turgan Ece. She was fluent in French and Turkish. Following the introduction of the surname act on June 21, 1934, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave her the family name "Ece", which means "queen" in Turkish. She died on January 28, 2012, nineteen days shy of her 99th birthday.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/02/first-miss-world-turns-94.html|title=The Thinking Blog - Informasi Berita Kreativitas Terbaru dan Terupdate|access-date=2010-04-01|archive-date=2019-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308135142/http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/02/first-miss-world-turns-94.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web |date=2012-01-29 |title=Turkey's first 'Miss World' dies at age 99 |url=https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-first-miss-world-dies-at-age-99-12575 |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=Hürriyet Daily News |language=en}} She was laid to rest at the Feriköy Cemetery, Istanbul.

As a Turkish beauty queen, she was a symbol of the new liberty of women in the Middle East,Bein, Amit (2017-11-09), p.147 following the end of World War I and was celebrated in the Arab press in Egypt and the Syrian Mandate. Having come back to Turkey, President Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) who was thrilled by the fact that an international jury chose a Turkish girl as the Miss Universe, congratulated her for her manifestation of "the noble beauty of the Turkish race".{{Cite book|last=Bein|first=Amit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhA6DwAAQBAJ|title=Kemalist Turkey and the Middle East|date=2017-11-09|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-19800-5|pages=153|language=en}}

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{{succession box

| before= Naşide Saffet Esen

| title=Miss Turkey

| years=1932

| after= Nazire Hanım

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|before= {{flag|Belgium}}
Netta Duchâteau{{cite news | title=Belgian Entrant Wins Contest as 'Miss Universe' | work=The Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, Florida) | date=17 June 1931 | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19310617&id=WssLAAAAIBAJ&pg=4466,3215044 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
(Galveston, United States)

|title = Miss Universe{{cite book | title=The making of modern Turkey | author=Ahmad, Feroz | year=1993 | publisher=Routledge | page=87 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghl5GPHDPPQC | isbn=978-0-415-07836-8}}
(Spa, Belgium)

|years = 1932

|after = {{flag|Egypt|1922}}
Charlotte Wassef{{cite book | title=Doria Shafik, Egyptian feminist: a woman apart | author=Nelson, Cynthia | year=1996 | publisher=American University in Cairo Press | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qGy0OIUH2RkC | isbn=978-977-424-413-1}}
(Brussels, Belgium)

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• Azra Akın

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• {{Cite web |url=http://www.thy.com/en-INT/skylife/archive/en/2001_9/konu9.htm |title=Skylife magazine |access-date=August 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060824204211/http://www.thy.com/en-INT/skylife/archive/en/2001_9/konu9.htm |archive-date=August 24, 2006 |url-status=bot: unknown |df=mdy-all }}

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Category:1913 births

Category:Turkish people of Abkhazian descent

Category:Turkish people of Circassian descent

Category:Turkish people of Ubykh descent

Category:Miss Turkey winners

Category:Models from Istanbul

Category:2012 deaths

Category:Burials at Feriköy Cemetery