63. Today in 1920s Turkey: 21 February 1920 (Censorship: No Cartoon Today, Part 1 of 3)

(Cartoon NA, Karagöz, 21 February 1920, no. 1248, page 4.)

English:
The picture has been delayed by the censorship office.

Türkçe:
Resim, sansür tarafından te’hir edilmiştir.

Comments:
During the first few years of the 1920s “Turkey” as we know it today had not yet been founded. At this time the Ottoman Empire was in the process of being occupied and divided among the victors of World War I while Turkish nationalists were organizing in Anatolia to fight an independence war (Kurtuluş Savaşı or Milli Mücadele). Under these politically volatile and oppressive conditions the local Ottoman administration was not keen on promoting a free press, especially in Istanbul, a city that bore the dual burden of being the waning empire’s capital and its publishing center. For these reasons, a strict censorship law had been in effect since February of 1919 requiring publishers to submit all printed materials for inspection before publication [1]. What we see in this instance is a hold on a potentially controversial cartoon that may or may not end up violating the sensibilities of the Ottoman administration.

Karagöz was well aware of the risks of printing content that could potentially drag the journal into deep waters. Depending on the severity of the offense, editors, owners, journalists, and cartoonists alike could end up imprisoned, fined, or their publication (temporarily or permanently) shut down. In fact, just a few weeks prior, on February 7 Karagöz had published a similarly empty space on its fourth page with the accompanying words, “The picture was removed by the office of censorship” or “Resim sansür tarafından çıkarılmıştır.”

(Cartoon NA, Karagöz, 7 February 1920, no. 1244, page 4.)

Thus, unlike today’s cartoon, the fate of the February 7 cartoon is betrayed in the announcement. There is still hope for today’s “delayed” cartoon. Thankfully, the reader need not wait too long before finding out what happened to this cartoon as the answer to this question is revealed in the next issue of Karagöz, published four days later.

This particular story will be continued on February 25.

(Entire page, Karagöz, 21 February 1920, no. 1248, page 4.)

Works referenced:
[1] See page 151 of Kabacalı, Alpay. Cumhuriyet Öncesi ve Sonrası Matbaa ve Basın Sanayii (“The Press and Print Industry before and after the Republic”). Istanbul: Cem Ofset, 1998.