Oldal 285 [285]
282
Ágnes Tamás
showing the contemporary opinion that the dissatisfaction and the conflicts of the
allies would be more powerful than a peace treaty (Der Floh, 4 May 1913).
In connection with death, the depiction of the allegory of the dying or dead
Turk should also be mentioned. In 1912, the well-known depiction of the Ottoman
Empire as the “sick man of Europe” is shown lying in bed surrounded by “doctors”
in various caricatures. The Hungarian cartoonist depicted the foreign minister of
Austria-Hungary, Leopold von Berchtold, and that of Russia, Sergei Dimitrievich
Sasanov, as doctors who wanted to get their honorarium even though they could
not cure the patient (ill. 123).
In the caricature of Vraë Pogadaë, the doctor is Europe, who confirms that the
Turk has no pulse, and, thus, that its European territories can be divided up. But
the Serbian figure Vrac, the magician appearing on the front page of the magazine,
objects and announces that the Turk has never had a heart and neither has Europe
(ill. 122)
Finally, in 1913, a depiction in Borsszem Jankó shows a Turk before the doctors
who have amputated his leg, obviously referring to the loss of territories (Borsszem
Jankó, 2 February 1913).
One can find two caricatures in which the Turk just barely escapes being
stabbed, symbolizing the imminent death of the “sick man of Europe.” In the pic¬
ture of the Hungarian weekly, a Bulgarian gladiator beats the Turk and seeks the
answer from the great powers: Can he leave the Turk alive (Borsszem Jankó, 10 No¬
vember 1912)? Vrac Pogadaë represented the motive of stabbing not through a scene
from the antiquity but through a sword with the name of “the Balkan League”
forcing the Turk to the wall (Vrac Pogadad, 14 October 1912). In the same year the
smothering of the Turk in the sea appears to suggest an alternative form of his death
in Vrac Pogadaë (Vraë Pogadaë, 29 October 1912). By the end of the year, after the
beginning of the peace negotiations in London, the prophecy surfaces that the Ot¬
toman Empire will fully lose ground in Europe. In one of the caricatures of Vraé
Pogadac, one can see the Austrian Michael® as the party most adverse to the Turk¬
ish losing ground in Europe and staying near the grave of the “European Turkey”
(ill. 125).
In a later depiction entitled “At the End of the Balkan War” the lone mourning
Michael can be observed near the Turk lying in his coffin (Vrae Pogadaé, 13 May
* The years 1912-1913 of the magazine Der Floh are online, available at http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi¬
content/anno?aid=flo (accessed 30. 06. 2012).
> The depiction of Europe as a woman has long traditions: in the antiquity Europe was represented
as a young woman, which was also adopted by the European Christian fine arts. After modernity and
the birth of nations, the young, beautiful woman would be the symbol of nations as well (Ripa 1997:
399-400). In caricatures, if Europe appeared as an old and not beautiful woman, the caricaturists were
expressing their negative opinions about European politics.
° Michael was the typically regarded German figure of the European satirical papers of the nineteenth
century. He wears breaches and a nightcap in all illustrations.