(Photograph with news snippet, Cumhuriyet or “Republic,” 17 May 1926, no. 727, page 1.)
Türkçe
Vahdettin Öldü
(altyazı) Vefatını telegrafın haber verdiği Hain Vahdettin
Sanremo 16 [A.A.] – Sakıt Sultan Mehmet Vahidettin vefat etmiştir.
English
Vahdettin Died
(caption) Traitor Vahdettin whose death was reported by telegraph
Sanremo 16 [A.A.]— The fallen Sultan Mehmet Vahdettin has died.
Comments:
On 16 May 1926 the last Ottoman sultan, Vahdettin (Mehmet VI) died in the Italian coastal town of Sanremo. Ascending to the throne in 1918 following the Ottoman loss at WWI, Vahdettin “ruled” Allied-occupied Istanbul during the Turkish War of Independence years. The Ottoman government, like the largely British and French occupying forces, was hostile toward the nationalist resistence movement emerging from Anatolia. As such, soon after the nationalists secured their victory in the summer of 1922, the Ottoman sultanate itself was abolished on 1 November 1922. Consequently, roughly two weeks later, on 17 November 1922, the last sultan left the country aboard a British battleship and settled on the island of Malta before moving to the Italian Riviera where he eventually passed away several years later. The foreign occupying forces, however, were more difficult to get rid of as peace negotiations were difficult and dragged on until an agreement was finally signed on 24 July 1923 dictating their retreat out of Turkey—a withdrawal that took six weeks to complete (23 August–4 October 1923).
Needless to say, the relationship between the new Republican government (est. 1923) and the ex-sultan never improved as he was considered by the victorious revolutionaries to be a colluder with the Allies and enemy of independence and national sovereignty. In fact, the pro-Republican press periodically used the memory of Vahdettin to demonize the old, Ottoman establishment and promote the Republic, especially in the earliest years of the new state’s existence. Thus, when news of the death of the old monarch reached Turkey, members of the press such as Cumhuriyet (“Republic”) feigned disinterest while passing along the news.
Looking at the “story” we see that it consists of a headline, photograph, and twitter-length blurb providing a few details. The headline is brief and almost irreverent: “Vahdettin died/öldü.” The verb “öldü/died” is one of the bluntest ways of describing a death and hardly betrays any sense of sorrow or respect for the man, especially when other, less harsh ways of expressing it exist in idioms like “hayata gözlerini yummak” (“to close one’s eyes to life”). The text below the photograph consists of a caption which identifies the deceased as “Traitor Vahdettin” and just one line of text providing the date and place of his death. And that is it. There are no further comments or final thoughts on the matter. The lack of any information about the deceased or opinions about him (even if negative) seems itself to be a statement (through absence) of continued disapproval. The newspaper seems to have arrived at a journalistic compromise by reporting this bit of news but only by exerting the smallest most infinitesimally small effort at creating a fully fleshed out “story.” Meaning, the story’s brevity is probably a conscious attempt at diminishing his memory. Indeed, a simple glance at the entire page further underscores the “small” nature of the story, as the entirety of photo and text occupies a minor percentage of the front page content.
(Entire page, Cumhuriyet or “Republic,” 17 May 1926, no. 727, page 1. Hakkı Tarık Us Collection, Beyazıt State Library, Istanbul.)
At least the story made the front page. It is also possible to read the briefness of the text as an attempt at restraint. Perhaps readers should just be happy that the editor did not take this opportunity to elaborate on the nickname “Traitor/Hain” used to describe the ex-sultan etc. This way, technically no ill words have been spoken of the dead, but also this occasion did not inspire any final reconciliation or pardoning toward the deceased. Indeed, in 1926 the bitterness and the wounds of the war were still too fresh for such an attitude to prevail.
For other examples of how the early Republican press treated the memory of the last sultan and the Ottoman dynasty see the following posts from the past:
120. Innocent Istanbul, You Deserve Better