Description

Original bdg. Dust wrapper. Mint. 4to. (31 x 22 cm). In Turkish. 255, [1] p. Color and b/w ills. Nuri Demirag (born 1886 in Divrigi - died 1957 in Istanbul) was an early Turkish industrialist. He was one of the first millionaires of the Turkish Republic. His first enterprise was the production of cigarette paper. Demirag then invested his capital in the development of the Turkish railway network. Because of this investment, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave him the surname Demirag, which translates as "Network of iron". In 1936 he started an aircraft factory employing 500 people at Besiktas, Istanbul (later nationalized by the government and now occupied by the Istanbul Naval Museum). Construction of the Nu D.38 twin engine high wing light transport followed. In 1946 he founded the first opposition party, which was named Milli Kalkinma Partisi (National Development Party), but his party was dissolved in 1958. He was elected deputy of Sivas for the Democratic Party as an independent candidate in 1954. Demirag donated his aircraft to his flying school (Gök Okulu) in Yesilköy, created to interest young Turks in aviation. The land upon which the school was built was later nationalized by the Turkish government and is now the Atatürk International Airport. Demirag died in 1957 from diabetes.