Babaanne gelince ona sarılmadan edemedim.

Babaanne means paternal grandmother — your father’s mother.

Turkish often distinguishes:

• babaanne = father’s mother
• anneanne = mother’s mother

In a sentence like this, Babaanne can function a bit like Grandma in English.

Turkish often leaves out possessives when the person is obvious from context.

So:

• Babaanne gelince... = When Grandma came...
• Benim babaannem gelince... would be more explicit: When my grandmother came...

Also, Turkish does not use a/the the way English does, so Babaanne can naturally stand alone.

Gelince comes from gelmek (to come) + -ince.

Here, -ince means something like:

• when
• once
• upon

So Babaanne gelince means:

• when Grandma came
• when Grandma arrived
• once Grandma came

It introduces a time clause.

Very often, yes, but the exact nuance depends on context.

With verbs, -ince commonly gives meanings like:

• when
• once
• after

In this sentence, the natural reading is when Grandma came/arrived.

Because the verb sarılmak takes the dative case, not the direct object.

So:

• ona sarılmak = to hug her/him
• literally, it behaves more like to embrace onto/toward someone

That is why Turkish uses:

• o = she/he/it
• ona = to her / to him

Not:

• onu, which would be the direct object form

This is something you usually just memorize with the verb:

• sarılmak + dative

Sarılmadan means without hugging.

It is built from:

• sarıl- = hug / embrace
• -ma- = negation
• -dan in this pattern gives an adverbial meaning

So the whole form means:

• without hugging
• not hugging

By itself, it can appear in sentences like:

• Ona sarılmadan çıktı. = He/She left without hugging her.

This is the key structure in the sentence.

The pattern is:

verb + -madan edememek

It means:

• to be unable not to do something
• to not be able to help doing something
• to be unable to resist doing something

So:

• sarılmadan edemedim
• literally: I couldn’t do without hugging
• naturally: I couldn’t help hugging her

This is a very common Turkish way to express an irresistible action.

Yes, pretty much.

Word for word, it is close to:

• I was not able to manage without hugging her

But in natural English, you would usually say:

• I couldn’t help hugging her
• I just had to hug her
• I couldn’t resist hugging her

So the Turkish is more idiomatic than the literal breakdown may first suggest.

You could say ona sarıldım, and it would simply mean:

• I hugged her

But ona sarılmadan edemedim adds emotion and spontaneity. It suggests:

• the speaker felt compelled to hug her
• it was hard not to do it
• the hug was almost automatic or irresistible

So the sentence is stronger and more expressive than a plain past tense verb.

The subject is I.

Turkish often leaves subjects unstated because the verb ending shows the person.

In edemedim, the ending -im tells you it is first person singular:

• edemedim = I couldn’t

So the full sense is:

• When Grandma came, I couldn’t help hugging her.

Yes. In this sentence, the subject of gelince is Babaanne.

So:

• Babaanne gelince = when Grandma came

Then the main clause has a different subject:

• (ben) ona sarılmadan edemedim = I couldn’t help hugging her

This kind of subject change is completely normal in Turkish.

Because Turkish normally places the main verb at the end.

So the basic flow here is:

• Babaanne gelince = time clause
• ona = to her
• sarılmadan = without hugging
• edemedim = I couldn’t help it / I couldn’t refrain

This final-verb structure is one of the most important word-order patterns in Turkish.

Yes, it is natural and idiomatic.

It sounds emotional and expressive, especially because of -madan edememek. A native speaker would understand it as something like:

• When Grandma came, I couldn’t help hugging her.

A simpler version would be:

• Babaanne gelince ona sarıldım.

But the original sentence is more vivid and heartfelt.