35. Today in 1920s Turkey: 29 November 1923 (Changing History sans Time Travel)

(History Class Illustration, Kelebek or “Butterfly,” 29 November 1923, no. 34, page 7.)

Comments:
This image was published exactly one month after the founding of the Republic on 29 October 1923. No sooner was the state declared a Republic did the press demand to begin seeing tangible change in areas such as governance, economy, and infrastructure. Change did begin occurring in various fields and at various levels within months of the regime’s establishment and continued throughout the 1920s but indeed, it did not happen overnight.

An easy way to make change visible is by changing the names of things and places. For instance the names of many roads, towns, and schools changed across the country to reflect recent events or commemorate newly minted heroes. Another way to cement a new establishment is by modifying collective memory to favor the new by discrediting the old. In the case of the early Turkish Republic, its predecessor, the Ottoman sultanate was regularly framed as a dark period in the nation’s past. According to Republican rhetoric this was a period dictated by the whims of the sultan—one in which the people were not responsible for their own destiny. In these ways, through inflection, it is possible to give the appearance of a transformed present by reframing or worse, excluding the past from public memory. This is precisely what Istanbul representative and prominent nationalist Yusuf Akçura advocated in a speech he delivered in the Grand National Assembly earlier that week.

Akçura’s problematic suggestion is the subject of today’s cartoon. Focusing on the feasibility of this logic-defying proposal the cartoon presents one way of nationalizing (or sanitizing) the Ottoman past by simple appellation: just call the sultanate a republic. Surely that is easier than excluding the last seven centuries from the history books. The artist further emphasizes the ridiculousness of the target of Akçura’s ideologically driven crusade, history classes, by placing the scene in a schoolroom full of disinterested students (kindly referred to as "Gentlemen") who could not care less what is taught.

English:
Above:
Our History is Changing!
“The Republic has been declared. Still histories comprised of the legends and stories of the sultans are being taught. The histories must change.” Mr. Yusuf Akçura’s speech in the Assembly.
Below:
Teacher: Gentlemen, in our history the period known as the Interval of the Sultanate, was the first Republic the Turkish nation had ever perceived. We are going to call the centuries that have elapsed from that period until today the Republican Interval.

Türkçe:
Üstte:
Tarihimiz Değişiyor!
“Cumhuriyet ilan olundu. Hala mekteplerde padişahların destanı, meddahı olan tarihler okutuluyor. Tarihler değişmelidir.” Yusuf Akçura Bey’in Meclisteki beyanatından.
Altta:
Muallim: Efendiler, tarihimizde fasıla-yı saltanat namıyla maaruf olan devir, Türk milletinin idrak ettiği ilk Cumhuriyet’tir. O devirden bugüne kadar güzeran eden asırlara fasıla-yı Cumhuriyet diyeceğiz…

(Entire page, Kelebek or “Butterfly,” 29 November 1923, no. 34, page 7.)