2. Today in 1920s Turkey: 4 August 1927 (The Beast of Bad Driving)

Cartoon by Ramiz (Gökçe), published in Akbaba, 4 August 1927, no. 485, page 1.

The subject of this cartoon is not immediately obvious from its imagery, which consists of six separate frames arranged in two columns and three lines. These frames are related to one another thematically, but unlike comic strips, they do not represent a sequence of events in a narrative. As such, one need not begin with one picture over another or follow a particular direction in reading each frame. That said, the average reader acquainted with Ottoman probably would have chosen to begin from the top right frame. Since each frame is furnished with its own set of captions in the form of dialogue, for the sake of clarity, I have separated each image, featuring them along with their respective Turkish and English translations below.

These brief, humorous dialogues clarify the thread connecting all of the mini-cartoons: traffic accidents. News about violent traffic collisions abounded in the 1920s as speedy transportation options such as trolleys and automobiles rapidly infested Istanbul’s narrow streets. When bad drivers meet bad vehicles, inexperienced pedestrians, insufficient roads, and crowded streets the results are fatal. The artist, Ramiz, whose signature is located in the cartoon with the automobile, uses satire to draw attention and raise awareness about this unfortunate, modern predicament. He does so in a number of ways including by confusing bad drivers with butchers; suggesting that pedestrians need divine insurance against cars; attributing amputations to traffic accidents over war-time injuries; and suggesting that car are as lethal as weapons. According to this series of cartoons, the unholy marriage of man (the careless driver) and machine (vehicle) has resulted in a blatant debasing of humanity as witnessed through this unexpected and unnatural end to another human being’s life.

Türkçe
— Vah, vah, yaşamak belası… Şimdi de levha satıyorsun, öyle mi?
— Hayır birader, otomobil kazalarına uğramamak için kendimi “Ya Hafız” sigortasına koydum!

English
— Tsk, tsk, life’s misfortunes… Now you have to sell (calligraphic) panels, is that right?
— No, brother. I have put myself on the “Oh Hafez” insurance plan to protect myself from an automobile collision!

Türkçe
— Etin okkası yüz kuruş mu? Ben de sizdenim, ikram etmez misin?
— Kasap mısın?
— Hayır, şoförüm!
English
— Is an oka of meat 100 piasters? I’m one of you, will you not offer me a sample?
— Are you a butcher?
— No, I’m a chauffeur!

Türkçe
— Hamd olsun, hükümet otomobillerin önüne şoförlerin fotoğrafını astırıyor. Ya şimdiye kadar ezdiklerimizin fotoğraflarını astırsaydı!
English
— Praise God, the government is requiring drivers to hang their photographs on the front of their automobiles. What if we were required to hang the photos of those whom we’ve run over!

Türkçe
— İnönü’de düşmanla çarpıştığınız için böyle oldunuz, değil mi?
— Hayır, Eminönü’nde otomobille çarpıştığım için böyle oldum!
English
— You’ve become like this because you battled the enemy at İnönü, right?
— No, I’ve become like this because I battled an automobile at Eminönü.

Türkçe
— Oğullarımın biri biçiyor, biri ekiyor… Geçinip gidiyoruz…
— Oğulların çiftçi mi?
— Hayır… Biri şoför, biri mezarcı!
English
— One of my sons does the harvesting and the other the planting… We get by…
— Are your sons farmers?
— No… One is a chauffeur, the other a gravedigger.

Türkçe
— Tahdit-i teslihat konferansında olsam, bütün…
— Silah fabrikalarını kapatırsın değil mi?
— Hayır, otomobil fabrikalarını kapatırım!
English
— If I were at the Armaments Limitation Conference I would…
— Close down all of the weapons factories, right?
— No, close down all of the automobile factories!

(Commentary continued)
The ubiquity of the mechanized vehicle in daily, urban life permeates the pages of newspapers and journals in various ways, some of which have already been covered by Today in 1920s Turkey. Post #55, for instance, features another cartoon by Ramiz about trolley-related accidents in Istanbul, whereas post #85 is about a PSA warning pedestrians to use the sidewalks, lest they be crushed by a car. Other signals of the growing automobile culture in Turkey can be found in advertisements, such as the one discussed in post #104 and new laws like the banning of oxcarts from Istanbul’s streets in 1927, as discussed in post #134.

Entire page, Akbaba, 4 August 1927, no. 485, page 1. Serial Publications, Atatürk Library, Istanbul.

Originally published at https://steemit.com on August 4, 2018.