8. Today in 1920s Turkey: 12 August 1925 (A Dystopian Vision)
Türkçe
Tarikat Salahiyecilerin Düşündükleri Memleket
Karagöz: Aman Hacivat rüya mı görüyorum nedir. Bu ne hal, kendimi İran’ın Nişapur şehrinde zannettim. Ayol bizim memlekete ne oldu?
Hacivat: Medeniyete doğru yürüyen gül gibi memleketi tarikat salahiyeciler bu hale çevireceklerdi. İşte bak da aradaki farkı anla!
English
How Authorities within Religious Orders Imagine the Country [Should Be]
Karagöz: Oh my, Hacivat, am I dreaming or what? What is up with this, I thought I was in the city of Nishapur in Iran. What happened to our country?
Hacivat: The supporters of religious orders wanted to turn our beautiful country, which was marching on the path to civilization, into this. Here, look and understand their differences.
Comments:
This cartoon presents a fictional view of what the nascent Republic could look like if the religious orders had their way. Painting a bleak vignette of a slum consisting of dilapidated houses, beggars, lethargic people, street dogs, and heavily concealed women, the cartoon functions as a warning of how quickly progress can be reversed.
Every state has a rival neighboring country that is regularly lampooned or criticized in popular lore and the media (e.g. America and Mexico, Denmark and Sweden, India and Pakistan). Post-war Turkey had a few of these proverbial piñatas: Greece and Iran. The latter is an interesting case as Iran was regularly employed as a warning beacon for Turkey. Through exaggeration, it exemplified a geographically close and culturally similar, but ultimately miserable state that Turkey could resemble if religion dictated public policy and societal norms.
Of course, at times the negative attitude the Turkish press exhibited toward Iran was reciprocated! For instance, a cartoon published in the satirical journal, Akbaba two years later, in 1927 criticized Iran for writing negative articles about Turkey. A Today in 1920s Turkey post about the cartoon can be found here. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Originally published at https://steemit.com on August 12, 2018.
