34. Today in 1920s Turkey: 26 November 1927 (Woman Escapes Prison. Again.)

Short snippet, Karagöz, 26 November 1927, no. 2055, page 2.

Türkçe
Bursa’nın Baş Belası: Kadın (Arsène Lupin) dedikleri meşhur yetmiş sabıkalı Boşnak Hayriye Bursa hapishanesinden yine kaçmış. Bir kere karakola götürülürken “Aman doğuruyorum, ebe getirin” diye jandarmaları başından savan Hayriye, tamam bir sene kendini aratmıştı, bakalım bu sefer kaç ayda tutulacak!

English
Bursa’s Premier Nuisance: Dubbed “the female Arsène Lupin,” the famous, seventy-time convicted Bosnian Hayriye has escaped from a Bursa area prison again. One time while being taken to the police station Hayriye got rid of her gendarme escorts by saying “For goodness sake I’m having a baby, bring a midwife” and had them searching for her for a full year. Let’s see how many months it will take to get her this time.

Comments:
On November 26, 1927 Karagöz ran a brief blurb that reads both as a “wanted” announcement as well as a soft, entertainment story that draws readers in with its sensational title, much like “click-baiting” today. The most interesting part of the story, however, was left for the main text, which includes an unexpected twist or detail. The snippet conveys news about a recent prison break which was accomplished by a woman — the less conventional gender associated with criminal inclination. In fact, the sheer number of crimes this woman has committed adds another layer of novelty to the circumstance. Moreover, her nickname, which refers to her as a female version of the French novelist Maurice Leblanc’s fictional “gentleman thief” character, Arsène Lupin is rather amusing and suggests that Mr. Lupin must have been a popular character recognizable to many Turkish readers at this time. The comparison must be based on the keen ability of both people to evade capture through deception. It is also possible that many of the offenses on the criminal, “Bosnian Hayriye’s” extensive rap sheet consists of various forms of theft.

Entire page, Karagöz, 26 November 1927, no. 2055, page 2. Hakkı Tarık Us Collection, Beyazıt Library, Istanbul.

This article has been updated and modified from its first iteration published on Steemit on 26 November 2016. For the original version see:
34. Today in 1920s Turkey: 26 November 1927 (Woman Escapes Prison. Again.)

Originally published at https://steemit.com on November 26, 2018.