More Than a Name:
Meaning of Tüvana
Tüvana…
Although some pronounce it as Tüvana, when we look at its Persian etymological origin, the original is Tüvana. Tüvana is actually an adjective, not a noun; It means strong, vigorous, lively.
“In the middle, there stand a number of young, undressed tüvan (men),” writes Memduh Şevket Esendal. As a name in Persian, Tüvan is the adjective for males, Tüvana is the adjective for females.
Tüvana was born on January 08, 1987 at Ankara Gülhane Military Medical Academy Hospital after 9 am after a snowy, cold night and blizzard.
Her blond hair stood on end, as if she had been caught in a draft as a baby, and everyone loved it.
Very stubborn, patient, fragile, overly sensitive, generally not expressing her emotions, friendly, endlessly helpful, polite, very respectful to her elders, thoughtful. Her elders, who knew her childhood, used to say that an angel of goodness sat in Tüvana’s breast. She had the typical characteristics of Capricorn.
In the Footsteps of the Light:
Travel from Ankara to İstanbul
At kindergarten age, she was directed to the kindergarten of Lycee Charles de Gaulle in Ankara under the French Embassy, with her younger sister Dilara, as her mother was a graduate of French speaking Tevfik Fikret High School. After completing her high school education at this school, she was accepted to the Faculty of Communication at the University of Nice. However, she preferred Istanbul by saying that “I only go abroad for touristic trips, my place is in İstanbul”, and after passing the Turkish university exam, she was first welcomed by the Department Director and Head of the Department at Bilkent University because of the school she graduated from, and in the first place, she was told that she is intended to be sent to the Parliament for translations.
In the meantime, Tüvana, whose mind was in Istanbul, took the special entrance exam of French speaking Galatasaray University. Her father Şibay, took her to this exam, in fact she did not take lessons for the entrance exam and did not study at all. In the night previous to the exam, her father goes down to the lobby in the Gezi Hotel, where they are staying, so that Tüvana can work a little at least in their room. When Tüvana was alone in her hotel room, she said, “oh, my father is gone, I lit a cigarette, I went out to the balcony, and ships in the Bosphorus are passing in front of me”. After the exam, she said, “I won this exam, father”. And indeed, she passed the exam. The goal of the “Faculty of Communication” was realized.
The light emitted by Tüvana’s vibrant and powerful aura made her a figure far from ordinary.
The Story of the Steps
The days of Galatasaray University, working for Suada and Reina restaurants were like firm steps forward in her life journey.
First blow on her life journey was being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in her first year at the university. She had an operation and then undergone a period of treatment. She was cured, but for the rest of her life she was put on thyroid drugs. Second blow was the terrorist attack on the night of January 1, 2017, in Reina the international restaurant that she was working for. She managed to survive this treacherous terrorist attack, albeit with difficulty. After Reina and Suada Restaurants that she was working for were demolished and closed, Tüvana managed to get back on her feet by opening the Asian cuisine restaurant named MYO in İstanbul.
During her student life in Istanbul, she first stayed as a lodger with her acquaintances. Then her mother came from Ankara and they lived together, then her dog Venus joined them. Her father had remarried and stayed in Ankara, and he supported Tüvana in İstanbul as much as he could.
A Silent Night:
Journey that Bid Adieu to Light
Tüvana has spent the first 18 years of her life in Ankara, studying. And the rest of her life in İstanbul that she loved dearly. In her life in İstanbul, the takeover of MYO Restaurant after the demolition of Suada restaurant and the Reina massacre was a difficult process, and all the efforts to gain recognition… The MYO Restaurant journey, which started in FSM Neighborhood at first, then extending to Tatlısu Neighborhood on the Anatolian side of İstanbul. After all these personal adventures, this great effort, drive to survive in the face of the difficulties, in the night of August 12 to August 13, 2024, after midnight, at the early age of 37, Tüvana breathed her last.
A life of heroic struggle against obstacles, like every human being, ending very early.
Attachments and Passions:
The Inner Universe of Tüvana
Tüvana had irreplaceable passions and strong ties. Together with her mother Sumru and sister Dilara, they continued their solid and strong stance. She was a Galatasaray (GS) fan by birth. Her irreplaceable passion became even stronger after she started working at Suada. She was always heading to the stadium with her yellow and red jersey on her back and her car with GS license plates, and she did not miss a game. Her favorite colors were, of course, yellow and red, the fanatical GS lass, her biggest oath was “GS should not be a champion until she dies”.
Another of her passions was her beloved dog Venus. So much so that she got the license plate of her next car in accordance with Venus.
She hadn’t learned to say no. She was very funny and entertaining, she would crack a joke when least expected, she would make everyone laugh. She was endlessly resistant to pain. She showed incredible anger at injustice and slander. She was smart, and very practical. She was extremely sensitive and protective of stray animals. She used to say, “If I become very rich one day, I would like to buy acres of land and shelter and take care of stray animals there.”
She played good billiards and backgammon, played very good football, scored with her left foot, and in her childhood no match would have been started without Tüvana. Once she even broke her big toe playing football.
Pasta and lasagna were her favorite dishes, and she made them very well. She loved and tried eggplant dishes, different sauces and spices, different flavors, and she got very successful results, she was creative in the kitchen.
She was always late for her appointments and kept people waiting, but no one could be angry with her.
She was a good collector of sneakers.
Once, she expressed her desire to play the violin from her childhood onwards, after her 30s, and then she didn’t have time.
She was said to have a beautiful voice, but she never let her family listen to her. She was a good moviegoer.
Since childhood, she had an incredible fear of heights, she could not even stand on the sidelines.
She kept secrets very well, she did not give away secrets.
She had perfect table manners and loved drinking.
She had solid stamina of mind, but one complaint that she mentioned was that her father left her to herself in İstanbul through her struggles.
She did not marry, but was engaged once.
Last but not the least, she was an admirer of Atatürk, like her generation. Once after an election day, when she heard somebody curse him, she used her fists to great effect.
This is the End …
I Love You …
Goodbye!
(This three-word message was sent by Tüvana to her friends on the night of December 31, 2016 to January 1, 2017, during the tragic terrorist massacre in Reina. The following text is an excerpt from Tüvana’s interview with the media that day.)
Imagine, on a New Year’s Eve, you are going to a venue to have fun with your friends. In the minutes you enter the new year, someone points a gun at you and starts shooting. Screams rise among the sound of music, people run away. Those who can’t escape can’t be saved. The attacker comes out wearing his white shirt among the dead bodies, passes through the police, and disappears.
Like Tüvana Tugsavul, who works at Reina and ran to the toilet to escape the attack. With tears in her eyes, she thinks that the electricity suddenly went out and that the gunman was going to blow himself up.
I sent messages to my friends, ‘This is the end… I love you… Goodbye.’
Tüvana Tuğsavul, Reina’s Public Relations and Corporate Communications Manager, described her experience at the time of the attack as follows: “I saw the light emitted by the bullets from the terrorist’s gun. I ran and hid in the bathroom. There were 8-9 of us in a cabin. That’s when I called the police. The attack was still ongoing. At the same time, I was corresponding with my friends in the camera room. I asked, ‘How many attackers are there?’ They said, ‘One.’ They turned off the lights so that it would be dark so that they could not kill more people. The last time I thought he was going to blow himself up. It was complete chaos. When I threw myself out, Mehmet Koçarslan –owner of the venue- was talking on the phone. Normally, his daughter Yasemin would be at the venue that day. He was in a state of panic. He was trying to find out how many people might have died, and he was looking for his daughter.”
Tuğsavul points out that the time of the attack was deliberately chosen: “Most people would come to Reina after having a New Year’s Eve dinner with their family at another place. In general, the place would start to fill up at 01:00 on New Year’s Eve. I think this is the reason why the attack was carried out after 24:00 at night. The terrorist chooses the most crowded hour. He knows the inside very well. He may have also watched the promotional videos. I do not know. But before Christmas, a group of Lebanese people came and wanted to look at the place. They were a little weird. More precisely, they were not ostensibly people who could afford to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Reina. They took a long look inside and then left.”
Tuğsavul, like other venue employees, thinks that the police were late in intervening. “The police officers who were outside at the time knew that one person had carried out the attack. If they had intervened earlier, so many people might not have died.” Explaining that he worked at Reina for 9 years, Tuğsavul expresses his sadness with the following words: “My birthday is now January 1st.”
INSTEAD OF AN OBITUARY:
We loved you too, Tüvana. We now commemorate January 1 and January 8 as your days of birth and rebirth. Like all your loved ones, we feel your absence most deeply and miss you very much. “You had a name, one that carries strength; but you have touched the lives of all of us with your grace.”
Sumru, Şibay, Dilara, Ozan, Alara & İlayda, Venüs