Her father was Cafer Fahri Bey from Batumi of Georgian descent and a microbiologist of the early Republican era.
[3][4][5] She is the older sister of paintress Tiraje Dikmen, and the niece of Ali Dikmen, a member of the Ottoman parliament Meclis-i Mebusan, and later a member of the Grand National Assembly.
[6] Dikmen received her pre-university education at the Robert College in Arnavutköy finishing in 1942.
[7] Six years later in 1948, she completed her education at the Painting Department of the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, and then went to Paris, France.
[2] In 1953, she graduated from the Art history Department of the Ecole du Louvre in Paris,[2] and worked three years with Fernand Léger and two years with Sengier Chastel and Roger Chastel.