32. Today in 1920s Turkey: 15 November 1923 (Turkey to Chester Concession: No Thanks!)
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On November 15, 1923 Zümrüd-ü Anka ran a cartoon by Ratip Tahir on its front page on the subject of foreign investment. Although not explicitly stated by name in the cartoon, the investment project at hand is most certainly the infamous Chester Concession, which was a recurring topic of discussion that week in the popular press. The Chester Concession was a development project proposed by an American syndicate initially in 1908 to the Ottoman state. The deal promised the construction of free railroads and commercial ports to the Ottoman Empire in return for ninety-nine years of mineral and oil mining rights in the areas surrounding the railways, among other benefits. Visual references to the details of this deal are included in the cartoon. The American investors are rendered as a singular Uncle Sam character with miniature boats, trains, planes and factories strapped to his back. Impatiently pressing the ringer of a closed door labeled “The Republic of Turkey” (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti), this ambitious salesman cannot wait to get his foot through the door in order to make himself a cushy profit from this deal. The above and below the cartoon second that impression:
Türkçe
Türkiye kapısında ecnebi sermayedarı!
— Bir defa içeri girebilsem…English
A foreign investor at Turkey’s door!
— If I could just get inside…
When World War I cut negotiations short the previously unrealized sticky mandate was brought up again in March 1923 during the Lausanne Peace Conference. The project promised rapid infrastructural and industrial development except with many-a-strings attached… After first having accepted the terms of the concession on 10 April 1923, the Turkish government cancelled the deal in December 1923 due in part to the insufficient progress made by the American investors who were unable to scrounge up the necessary capital to push operations forward on the ground in Turkey. This was a wise decision on Ankara’s part. Imagine: had that deal gone through, it would have remained valid until 2022! The cartoonist’s unflattering depiction of Uncle Sam as a spindly, eager pusher of “free wares” provides a comical snapshot of Western predatory lending practices and (proto?) neo-colonialism (decades before such a term would even be coined in the post-colonial environment of the ‘60s).
Originally published at https://steemit.com on November 15, 2018.
