“Irony and Tension” explores Turkish perceptions of the Second World War, and their different inflections in Istanbul and Ankara, with the visual guidance of the propaganda materials of the era. It examines how the Single Party Regime directed the masses during the war through many different types of effective and eclectic visual propaganda images by the use of military albums, official bulletins, community centre publications, postage stamps, popular culture, and caricature magazines, all designed, printed and distributed within the country.

This publication does not intend to re-run the war for the reader through familiar images of the destruction, genocide, and fighting at the front during the Second World War. Rather than the war itself, it focuses on how the war was perceived in Türkiye, a country that never entered the war. The war, sweeping the globe outside Türkiye’s borders was viewed by those inside the country at times with caution, and at times with worry and tension; this publication seeks to analyse the official statements, social psychology and political change encouraged by these perspectives. “Irony and Tension” first looks at the relationship between the policy of active neutrality in Ankara and the war psychology experienced in Istanbul, initially closely linked, which later went through a process of unravelling. In the conclusion section, it aims to introduce the reader, the images and visual representations reflected in the discourse of a “New Türkiye”, liberated from war paranoia looking confidently towards the future, which was used by the Democratic Party in its successful 1950 eleelection campaign.

Irony and Tension // article // Manifold Press // 28.11.16 >>