159. Today in 1920s Turkey: 2 April 1926 (A Very Important Statue Comes Out of Its Box)

Türkçe
Dün Ambalajı Açılan Gazi’nin Heykeli
Gazi Paşa Hazretleri’nin heykeli dün şehremini Muhittin, muavin Şükrü Ali, Mektupçu Osman, müze müdürü Halil, heyet-i fenniye müdürü İbrahim Beyler’le sair zevat huzurunda açılmıştır. Heykel mevzu’ bulunduğu sandık içinde yüz üstü olarak yatırılmış esmer ve sarımtırak renktedir. Heykel layikiyle tedkik edilemediği için bugün öğleden evvel şehremini ve erkan-ı emanet huzurunda tedkik edilecek ve şeraitine muvaffak olduğu ta’yin edildiği taktirde Krippel’in vekilleri Mösyö Houti ve Ekrem Bey’den teslim edilecektir.

Heykel ile beraber beş adet de büst gelmiştir. Bu büstlerden ikisi(nden) biri Gazi Paşa’nın köşklerine, diğeri Büyük Millet Meclisi salonuna vaz’ edilmek üzere Ankara’ya ve diğer üçü de Sinop, Giresun ve Konya’ya gönderilecektir.

English
The Gazi’s Statue, the Packaging of Which Was Opened Yesterday
The esteemed Gazi Pasha’s statue was opened yesterday before Mayor Muhittin, (his) deputy Şükrü Ali, correspondent Osman, the museum director Halil, the director of (the office of) technical affairs İbrahim Bey and other persons. The statue, which was placed face-down in its crate, is brown and yellow-ish colored. Because (yesterday) the statue could not be properly examined, today before noon it will be examined in the presence of the mayor and high officials and if it is determined that it was successful in (fulfilling all) its conditions it will be delivered from Krippel’s proxies Monsieur Houti(?) and Ekrem Bey.

Five busts came with the statue as well. Two of these busts will be sent to Ankara—one for the Gazi Pasha’s house and the other to be placed in the Grand National Assembly’s auditorium/hall—and the other three to Sinop, Giresun, and Konya.

(News snippet with photograph, Cumhuriyet or “The Republic,” 2 April 1926, no. 684, page 1.)

Comments:
Ninety-three years ago today this brief, illustrated news story appeared on the front page of the daily gazette, Cumhuriyet. The piece is one of many “updates” that the paper had run regarding the developments behind the creation and arrival of Turkey’s first president’s first statue. Although grainy, the accompanying photograph shows the sculpture standing erect with the frame of its shipping crate still intact around it. Some of the men mentioned in the text stand arranged around the statue which visibly dwarfs them.

Once placed in its intended location, this statue is destined to become the Sarayburnu monument familiar to us today. The statue was erected on 3 October 1926, almost exactly six months after the publication of this article and the arrival of the complete statue in Istanbul from Vienna where it was cast. Its sculptor is Heinrich Krippel who was also commissioned to make several other statues of “the Gazi” or Atatürk throughout the rest of the 1920s and 1930s. Any plans regarding public monuments, their fabrication, erection, or related projects were all events worthy for the newspapers to report. Several other examples of such content have been explored by Today in 1920s Turkey. See:

24. Today in 1920s Turkey: 6 October 1926 (Which City Houses the First Atatürk Statue?)

105. Today in 1920s Turkey: 18 August 1928 (A Monument to the Republic Opened in Taksim Square)

106. Today in 1920s Turkey: 22 August 1926 (Model for an Early Atatürk Monument That Was Never Made)

(Entire page, Cumhuriyet or “The Republic,” 2 April 1926, no. 684, page 1. Hakkı Tarık Us Collection, Beyazıt State Library, Istanbul.)