198. Today in 1920s Turkey: 6 June 1923 (A Mysterious Censored Column)
Comments:
Like much of the early 1920s in Turkey, the period between 1922 and 1923 was especially full of uncertainty. The summer of 1922 ended with Turkey’s victory against the Allied-supported Greek forces in western Anatolia, concluding the War of Independence that was ignited with the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in WWI. Despite the Turkish victory in 1922, the future of the state would hang in limbo until October 29, 1923 when the new form of government was declared a Republic. During much of that year, Allied occupation of the Ottoman capital remained limited but in effect until October 6, 1923 when the last of the uninvited occupiers left, formally liberating the city.
Following WWI and during the War of Independence, Istanbul’s occupation was paired with censorship of the press by its various foreign occupiers; British, French, and Italian administrators monitored the newspapers and journals, checking them for anti-Allied and pro-Turkish nationalist sentiments. Accordingly, news publishers were required to run their content by the occupying authorities before they committed it to press and materials deemed subversive would be removed, leaving a blank space in its place. Thus, the blank space was often a result of not having a replacement for the space. Afterall, when a preview was submitted for censorship review, the authors/editors never intended for any of the content to get pulled from publication.
Censorship has long been a staple for Ottoman and later Turkish publishing as well. Thus, it is possible that the removal was made on the request of Turkish authorities. However, the date of the current publication and the resulting blank space strongly suggest that it was the foreign occupiers who removed today’s content and not any Turkish administrators based in Istanbul. Commonly, Turkish censorship did not revolve around approval ahead of printing but would allow the offensive materials to be published. Subsequently the journal’s editor, owner, or the author of the offending material would suffer punishment (e.g., fines, imprisonment, closing of paper) ex post facto. Thus, Turkish censorship in this period usually did not result in blank spaces.
Curiously, a lone, ominous sentence evaded today’s censorship. At the top of the column is the standard subheading illustration consisting of the upper body of a bifocaled Karagöz pointing at a slate or piece of paper. The second column of the second page always opens with this small sketch followed by a title, which changes from one issue to the next. Here, the emptiness of the column extends all the way to the bottom of the page, terminating with the following words:
“What else do we want! And what else can we want!”
“Daha ne istiyoruz! Ve ne isteyebiliriz!”
— Karagöz
So, what exactly were these desires? That we cannot know.
For more on censorship during this period see the following posts:
#63. Censorship: No Cartoon Today, Part 1 of 3
#64. Censorship: Better Late Than Never, Part 2 of 3
#65. Censorship: You Win Some You Lose Some, Part 3 of 3
#68. Freedom of Speech for Mother-in-Laws
