Page 115 [115]
The Arab Other in Turkish Political Cartoons, 1908—1939
or commentaries. Besides their traditional looks, the one common aspect of all
these types was their barbaric and disloyal character for allying with European
forces against the Ottoman Empire.
The Arab of the Middle East, in the new imagery of the Turkish Republic ap¬
peared in the cartoon scene through two contemporaneous events: the Arab Revolt
of 1936, also known as the Palestinian Revolt, and the Alexandretta dispute (1936—
1939). Although these situations arose independently, they were represented at the
same time in Turkish cartoon magazines.
‘The cartoonists’ perception of the new foreign policy during the early years of
the republic was characterized as cautious, realistic, and generally aimed at preserv¬
ing the status quo and the hard-won victory of 1923. The period from 1923 to the
1930s was dominated by the power struggle between Turkey and the Great Powers,
mainly over border issues, with Iraq over Mosul, and with Syria over Hatay San¬
cak (the Alexandretta sanjak [‘district’]).? The feeling of distrust towards the West
was still rife. Yet, over the course of the national construction years, Turkey’s rela¬
tions showed a gradual improvement with its neighbours, mainly with the powers
on its southeastern border, Britain and France. After the resolution of the Mosul
dispute with Britain in 1926, the one issue Turkey and France clashed over in the
1930s was the district of Alexandretta. Meanwhile, Turkey stood on the sidelines as
a mere spectator to the Arab Revolt, which was taking place in Palestine and Syria.
When the Palestinian Arab Revolt of 1936 (simultaneously against the Brit¬
ish and the Zionists) echoed in the Turkish newspapers, a prominent cartoonist
depicted the incident by alluding to the ancient Roman gladiatorial fights with the
title yan (‘Revolt’) (Fig. 9).1° As in earlier periods, revolt stood as the major theme
in the 1930s Turkish cartoons and was seen as the major attribute of the Arab Oth¬
er. In the cartoon as well, the European power, depicted as an old, beaten-up gladi¬
ator, holds his bloody sword against the Arab Revolt, represented as a giant beast.
‘The giant’s dark, hairy skin constitutes a binary opposition to his fleshy, swollen
red lips, exaggerated to signify foolishness, as in the cartoons of Africans. Cartoon
artists developed an interest in deformed and misshapen monstrosity as a form
of pictorial representation, a symbol of the negative. Monsters, aberrations, and
° The Alexandretta district or Hatay Sancak was a province located in southern Turkey, on the Mediter¬
ranean coast. The administrative capital of the district was Antakya (Antioch), and the other major city in
the province was the port city of Iskenderun (Alexandretta). It was part of the Ottoman Empire until the
Great War. Under the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, Syria, Lebanon, and the northern Levant, including
Alexandretta, were given to the French. It officially went under French mandatory government after 1919,
bordering Turkey to the south. The province was designated part of the National Pact of 1920 by Mustafa
Kemal, and it held its significant status until its inclusion within the Turkish Republic’s borders.
10 “Filistinde Kanl: Hadiseler: Tel Aviv ve Hayfada örfi idare ilan edildi” (‘Bloody Events in Palestine:
Martial Law is Proclaimed in Tel Aviv and Haifa), Zan Gazetesi, April 21, 1936; “Filistinde vaziyet vahim:
Araplar ve Yahudiler arasında yeniden kanlı hadiseler oldu” (‘Situation is Serious in Palestine: Bloody
Events Taking Place Between the Arabs and Jews’), Zan Gazetesi, April 22, 1936; “Filistin Yahudileri
Kudüse iltica ediyorlar” (‘Palestinian Jews are Immigrating to Quds.’), Cumhuriyet, April 25, 1936.
113