Armenian News Network / Groong
Picture This: American Cartoonists
Portray the Destruction of the Armenian Nation by the Turks. A remarkable cartoon essay on this colossal
crime published in December 1915 that tells of the scale of the horrors in no
uncertain terms.
Armenian News Network / Groong
April 24, 2016
Special to Groong by Eugene L.
Taylor and Abraham D. Krikorian,
LONG ISLAND, NY
“In 1915 the Turkish government began, and
ruthlessly carried out, the infamous general massacre and deportation of
Armenians in Asia Minor… the clearance of the race from Asia Minor was about as
complete an act, on a scale so great, could well be…There is no reasonable
doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political reasons.” Winston
S. Churchill [Endnote 1]
Many
believe that on select occasions “less is more”. This may well be, especially so far as
representations of the Turkish genocide against the Armenians is concerned.[2] One hardly sees the grim topic of “Murder of
a Nation” as one calling for any expression of humor. It can be appreciated, however, that outrage
and disgust can be expressed in imagery oftentimes much more effectively than
words alone. The December 1915 issue of Cartoons Magazine (volume 8 No.6) contains
examples of cartoons (the word used here in the historic sense [3]) effectively getting the sad message
across.
We
devoted some space in an October 4, 2014 Groong posting to “Who knew what, when
and how…” [4] Soon after this ongoing crime was brought to the fore in the mass media, American
cartoonists rose to the challenge by using their skills to put words from the
print media into imagery. Readers will
more than likely agree with us that they were very successful in using cartoons
to supplement prose.
Good
quality copies of the specific issue of the Cartoons
Magazine containing the article “Settling the Armenian Question” are rare. Also, as luck would have it, the digitized
version presented by Google of this volume of the magazine is not well scanned
— so much so that the digitized article available on line is virtually
useless. We therefore decided to use
this solemn occasion of commemoration to present the whole article by scanning
the pages from our copy of the Cartoons Magazine which is
in good condition.
Endnotes
[1] Winston Spencer
Churchill, The World Crisis —
1918-1927, The Aftermath (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929 pg. 430; The World Crisis, volume IV, The Aftermath
1918-1922 (Bloomsbury, 2015 pg. 277, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).
[2] We need not say much
here about Cartoons Magazine. It was
a monthly published between June 1913 and June1921 in Chicago and regularly
covered a range of topics. It routinely reflected American wit and humor and is
full of caricatures that are very insightful and apt.
[3] One can read that the
word cartoon derives from the Italian
word cartone meaning a stout paper.
This word gradually in turn led to its use to signify any drawing on
paper. The Oxford English dictionary
offers the view that a cartoon may be a humorous or topical drawing relating to
current events. This is certainly the
context of the ‘cartoons’ presented in this posting.
[4] Abraham D. Krikorian and
Eugene L. Taylor (October 4, 2014) “99 Years Ago Today:- Who Knew What, When and How about “The Massacres that
Would Change the Meaning of Massacre.” The Committee on Armenian Atrocities in New
York City’s Release for Publication in Papers of Monday, Oct. 4, 1915. See Groong Armenian News Network http://groong.usc.edu/orig/ak-20141004.html
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