Celebrating Republic Day

Son Saat, October 29, 1950

I've been spending a little bit of time in libraries in Turkey looking at old newspapers. As a research method, I have mixed feelings about the process: While moments of discovery feel rather miraculous, one quickly comes to realize just how tedious search for a needle in a haystack might really be.

That said, flipping through the paper in that way does provide unexpected pleasures. Here, for example, we have the front page of Son Saat, a paper that tended to support the Democrat Party during the early 1950s. Insofar as I've been able to tell, it was generally geared towards a culturally and more conservative readership, which is why I found this page as striking as I did. Despite the then current debates between the Democrat and Republican People's Parties, there was a great deal of agreement about the "Republic" as a thing to be celebrated.

Current debates, on the other hand, raise interesting questions both about the moments we take to be foundational of a national identity and the implications of publicly acknowledging those moments. The brief background on today's debate is this: Every year, the government plans a huge public ceremony to commemorate the declaration of the Turkish Republic. This year, however, the government cancelled the plans in order to show solidarity with the earthquake victims in Van (see Fatima Dişli Zıbak's op-ed in Today's Zaman for a summary of mostly positive coverage of the decision). When it emerged that several government leaders - including the prime minister - had instead visited a wedding on the 29th, they were roundly castigated by the opposition (see, for example, a Yusuf Kanlı op-ed in the Hurriyet Daily News).

For my part, posting the photo is certainly not a longing for the "good old days," but it did remind me of the ways in which Turkey continues to change.