"...An open mahogany coffin laid on the raised platform. The long queue of people who filed past paying their last respects to the uniformed American officer lying in state, were praying or bidding their farewells silently before returning slowly to their seats. Everybody was weeping as expected at a dignified military ceremony... The woman who laid amongst the flowers of all colours on the catafalque looked more like a Hollywood star than a soldier. This officer in the uniform of a lieutenant colonel was a Turk..."Born to an old Ottoman family that had embraced the ideals of the newly founded republic, Aylin attended the American Coliege For Girls and later went to Paris to continue her education. Thus began a life with head-spinning pace: a hasty marriage towards becoming a Libyan princess, medical education that led to a succesfull career as a psychiatrist, numerous further marriages that never lasted long, a career in the American army as a lieutenant colonel... Even her death had a touch of her characteristic flair; its cause has remained a mystery to this date.