Leman Ergench (Leman Ergenç)

Leman Ergench was born in Harmanli on 28th of November 1937. She graduated primary school in her native town. In 1955 she graduated with honors from Turkish Pedagogical School ‘Valko Chervenkov’ in Sofia. At the same year after a competition she won a scholarship to continue her education abroad. In 1960 she graduated from the Department of Turkish Language and Literature with second speciality Psychology in the Faculty of Western Languages and Literature of Baku State University. In Bulgaria she worked as teacher of Turkish Language for seven years then she visited Turkey on excursion and did not turn back. For four years she was teaching Turkish Literature in Edirne High School. In 1971 she started working at Ankara University, speciality Russian Language and Literature. She defended her master’s and doctoral degrees in the field of contemporary Turkish literature. As associate professor in the same department she was in charge of preparing and opening the new speciality – Bulgarian language and Literature in which the first students were admitted in 1991. She was head of the Department as full professor to 2003 when retired. At present she lives in Istanbul.