Caricaturing the enemy: caricatures and the Greek-Turkish War 1919-1922

Abstract

A century ago, the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922 (Turkish War of Liberation/Asia Minor Campaign) was reaching its culmination point. The war was also fought in the pages of the Press. In this study, we look at the characteristics of the caricatures marshalled in the war effort by three publications. The Greek newspaper Skrip, and the Turkish satirical magazines Karagöz and Güleryüz. We find that most expectations based on semiotics and the concept of interstate rivalry are borne out. Depictions of the ‘Other’ are generally negative. That said we also find that Skrip dedicated the majority of its caricatures to targeting the internal ‘Other’, the Venizelist faction during the National Schism, in contrast to the more focused targeting of the Greek ‘Other’ by the Turkish publications. This finding indicates the dominance of domestic conflicts over the external conflict even during the inflation point of the Greek-Turkish Interstate Rivalry of 1866-1925