Zehra Bilir was born Eliz Surhantakyan in
Arapgir. In an article published in the Armenian newspaper
Agos, it was suggested that Zehra Bilir's real Armenian name was Eliza Ölçüyan. Her father Harutyun, went to fight for the Ottoman Empire during the
First World War but has never returned. Eliz had two sisters and a brother who her mother couldn't look after on her own. Therefore, her mother married a Turkish man and Eliz always believed that her step-father was in fact her real father. This eventually became the name she was known by. After receiving her primary school education at the local elementary school, she and her family moved to Istanbul in 1927. After working alongside a hatter, she then began to take musical notation and
solfeggio lessons from famed Armenian musician Artaki Candan-Terzian. == Death ==