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he passed away. Leyla İlova,
who produced all through her
life and still keeps on, prepared
and presented the “Youth Hour”
in her years as a student. The
fact that she was fluent in both
English and Bosnian and was a
professional tour guide helped
her duty as a branch manager at
the Ministry of Tourism, Publicity
Department. She also joined the
Çelik Palas for a while. Always
trying to be useful and spend her
time efficiently, Miss Leyla is not
only proficient and lively but also
very elegant and sensitive. She
can see with her heart, listens
attentively and spreads warmth
to the people around her, maybe
because she was born and grew
up in a house filled with love. She
perceives love as the essence
of life, adding it meaning. She
believes in order to die, you first
need to live. Really live. She says
she hasn’t been married, for she
has not known love as strong
as the love she still admires and
envies; the love between İsmet
Pasha and Mrs. Mevhibe and the
love between her father and her
mother. She sings sevdalinkas
like her father and faces life
somewhat “sarcastically”. In her
own words, there is enough to
cry for in the “sobbing world”, so
you need to laugh to live the life
to the fullest.
She remembers the past as
if it were just yesterday. With
her stories, she revives the
Çengizades who were the
representatives of the Ottoman
Empire in the Balkans and the
great love she has witnessed.
The 250 artifacts she donated
the Bursa City Museum, along
with 600 years of heroic tales,
carries the love between her
parents to present. The citizens
of Bursa witness the epic past of
a deep-rooted family from Bosnia
to Bursa, who was identified
with the Balkan history of the
Ottomans, thanks to attentively
prepared exhibition deriving from
Ms. Leyla’s memories and her
family’s legacy. The Rumelian
migration of 1354 that started the
Balkan period of the Ottomans
also forms the content of the
exhibition as well as the family
tree of Leyla İlova and the start of
the Çengiç role in history.
We see Leyla İlova’a ancestors
presented in the form of a story in
Fotoğraflar / Photos: Engin Çakır
