Tayfur Sökmen is the first and only head of state of Hatay State, which existed between 1938 and 1939. He served as a member of parliament in the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye for many years and then as a member of the Senate of the Republic. He was born in Antep in 1892, and died in Istanbul on March 3, 1980.
He spent his childhood and youth in Kırıkhan; He received primary and secondary education here and also took private lessons. He completed his military service during the First World War during the construction of the military road between Kırıkhan and Hassa.
National Struggle and Hatay
After the Armistice of Mudros, he played an active role in organizing the armed resistance around Iskenderun and Antakya against the French occupation. He served as a manager in societies established to defend the rights of the Turkish people in the region.
In 1935, he was elected as an independent deputy from Antalya and entered the Parliament. Following the agreements between Türkiye and France, the Hatay Assembly was opened on September 2, 1938 and Sökmen was appointed head of state. The state came to an end when the Parliament decided to join Türkiye on June 23, 1939.
After his participation, he was in the Parliament as a member of parliament for Antalya until 1950 and for Hatay between 1950 and 1954. He later served in the Senate of the Republic as a quota senator elected by the president until 1974. His son Murat Sökmenoğlu is also a politician who served as a member of parliament for Hatay and Istanbul.
Sökmen's name is remembered as one of the symbolic names of Hatay's accession process to Türkiye.
