197. Today in 1920s Turkey: 21 November 1923 (Look Alive, People!)
Comments:
This cartoon reveals the meager progress made on the railroad that the Chester Concession promised to construct. It highlights the unrealistic long-term feasibility of the project and questions whether it could ever be completed at the current pace. Since the Chester Concession was accepted by the Turkish government back in April of 1923, the wisdom of doing business with American “investors” and the soundness of this deal were contested as it appeared to be a sophisticated scam or grift aimed at parasitizing Turkey’s natural resources. The questionable motives of the American investors and the Turkish media’s skepticism surrounding the inflated and misleading promises of the Chester Concession are delineated in a several other cartoons published in Akbaba and Zümrüd-ü Anka (see posts #31 and #32) earlier that month.
The present cartoon, published on the front page of Karagöz, summarizes a visible concern with the apparent lack of progress in delivering on the railroads thus far. The cartoon claims that there are not enough workers or engineers on site to maintain the mere pretense of progress. The text above the cartoon takes a satirical jab at the project by naming the scene an “Exhibition,” thus underscoring that so far, only a performative spectacle has been made, rather than honest-to-goodness headway. See below:
Türkçe:
Samsun’da Chester Nemayişi
Hacivat: Kolay gele irgad başı, ne uğraşıp duruyorsunuz?
Chester Mühendisi: Chester projesinden haberin yok mu Hacivat çelebi, Anadolu’yu baştan başa demiryolu kaplayacağız.
Karagöz: Bir mühendis iki amele ile ha! Ölme eşeğim ölme yonca bitecek desene!
English:
The Chester Exhibition in Samsun
Hacivat: May your work come easy, foreman! What are you up to there?
Chester Engineer: Are you not aware of the Chester project Hacivat? We are going to cover Anatolia in railroads.
Karagöz: Really? With one engineer and two laborers! Why don’t you just say this will never get finished!
