117. Today in 1920s Turkey: 11 October 1923 (Geographic Vestigial Dismemberment)

(Cartoon by Ahmet Münif, Kelebek or “Butterfly,” 11 October 1923, no. 27, page 1.)

Türkçe:
(Üstte) Cumhuriyet Haritası:
(Altta) Şimdi kuşa benzedik.

English:
(Above) Map of the Republic:
(Below) Now we resemble a bird.

Comments
On Thursday, 11 October 1923 the weekly journal Kelebek featured a map of the new state’s borders as its cover-page illustration. The visually unconventional map has passed through the filter of a cartoonist’s hand, as it expresses far more than the mere boundaries of a state. Rather, it represents a very messy process. Through the analogy of a lanky stork transforming into a bird with more standard proportions, the short and not-so-sweet history of the nascent state is superimposed upon the standard map of its once mighty antecessor.

While the map’s legend in the lower left corner identifies it as Memalik-i Osmaniye or the Ottoman Empire, the title above the cartoon declares that it is a map of the Republic. The contradictory labels serve to communicate the transitional moment when one political entity ceases to exist and another is born. In this way, the new Turkey’s relationship to the old Ottoman Empire is established.

Even more imposing, however, is the visual, surgical transformation taking place before our eyes directly over the former Ottoman territories. Here, a single bird embodies two political entities, one a mutilated version of the other. Additional visual indicators of the image’s cartographic core can be found in the text identifying the various geographic regions located behind and around the bird’s body. The stork is a clever choice for a bird that can be manipulated into vaguely Ottoman-terrestrial form. As such, the Ottoman territories that would be lost over the course of the late 19th and early 20th century lie beneath the stork’s most characteristic features, mainly his bulky wings, long beak, and reed legs; while the remaining core areas of the bird’s body correspond to those of the new state.

The four unsettling sets of scissors constitute the method by which the bird’s transformation from a freakishly-spindly stork to a sensibly compact sparrow is completed. The sharp objects symbolize the blunt process by which this mutilation took place: war. International conflict was both the reason behind the loss of territories and the change in state and government. Although some of the territorial losses “cited” on the map had occurred as early as the 19th century, the final blow to Ottoman sovereignty was dealt in the aftermath of WWI whereby the Ottoman territories were partitioned between the Allied victors. The Turkish nationalist War of Independence that combated occupation served to restore some lost core territories to the state while dismantling the resident, defunct Ottoman administration and empire. And this is the sordid narrative behind the stork’s rather extensive surgical procedure.

(Entire cover page, Kelebek or “Butterfly,” 11 October 1923, no. 27, page 1.)

Additional Notes:
When this cartoon was originally published on 11 October 1923 the new Turkish state had not yet been declared a Republic. Indeed, that development would happen just a few weeks later on 29 October 1923. As such, the present cartoon was published in anticipation of a Republican outcome to the question on everyone’s mind: What Should We Name Our Country?.

For more examples of the artist Ahmet Münif’s work see the following posts from the past:

#1. Peace Cannons (2 August 1923)

#13. Back to School Edition (23 August 1923)

#26. Ankara Becomes Turkey’s New Capital City (18 October 1923)

#69. The Young and the Restless (12 March 1925)