Women, Fashion and Turkish Nationalism during the Armistice Period, 1918-1923 Elif Mahir Metinsoy Introduction At the end of World War I, Ottoman Empire was on the side of the losers and had to endure the harsh treatment of the winners. The Peace Treaty of Sèvres that was signed by the Ottoman Grand Vizier Damad Ferid and accepted by the Istanbul government on August 10, 1919 left only the capital city and certain parts of Anatolia as the remnant of the Ottoman Empire that once ruled in three continents. The power of the sultan and the Istanbul government was curbed especially after the occupation of Istanbul by English, French and Italian army forces. A new political center appeared in Ankara under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, a well-reputed Turkish army officer. Mustafa Kemal organized a national struggle in Anatolia together with his colleagues like Rauf (Orbay), Refet (Bele), Ali Fethi (Okyar), Ali Fuat (Cebesoy), and Kâzım (Karabekir). Turkey emerged as a sovereign state at the end of the National Struggle and with the ratification of the Lausanne Peace Treaty on July 24, 1923. The Armistice period and the Occupation of Istanbul by the Allied forces that comprises the years between 1918 and 1923 is one of the most omitted accounts of the Ottoman-Turkish historiography since the historical account of the National Struggle that also took place within the same period had a more political importance. However, the Armistice Period witnessed a new Turkish woman, which was more modern and nationalist at the same time in the conditions of World War I and the National Struggle that followed. 1
The Impact of the Armistice Period on Cultural Life The Armistice Period does not only signify a shift in the political center, but it also signifies important cultural changes especially in the capital city of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul was under a great transformation in this period. The occupation forces together with the Russian refugees that inhabited the city for a few years had brought a new lifestyle that Istanbul populace was not accustomed to until that time. Especially the White Russian refugees that escaped from the Bolshevik army after the Revolution of 1917 had contributed to the transformation of the cultural life in Istanbul. Total number of these refugees had reached 200,000 at the end of the Armistice Period. Russian ballets, musicians, and artists and the newly opened restaurants, bars, café chantants and nightclubs introduced by White Russian refugees had brought new forms of entertainment and leisure to the inhabitants of the city. Nevertheless, along with these cultural improvements, moral degeneration in Istanbul also went hand in hand with the arrival of the refugees. Many Russian women with the aim of earning fast money had entered into prostitution; they also introduced gambling in the form of tombala (lotto) that became very popular in the coffee houses of the time. In addition, the sale and consumption of drugs had increased in the city with the arrival of White Russians. Muslim women were also ready to adopt the head covering style of Russian women, the Rusbaşı (Russian Head), that displayed some part of the hair and left the face and the nape uncovered. These developments also contributed to the rising nationalistic trend among the Muslim city populace. Not only were the cultural norms of the city but also the moral codes that were strictly applied in times of peace were under a great threat due to the presence of the occupation forces, the Allied armies and the Russian refugees. 2
Rise of Turkish Nationalism among Certain Intellectuals The presence of the occupation forces in the capital city had provoked nationalist sentiments in many intellectuals living in Istanbul. After the occupation of Izmir by the Greek army, there occurred many public meetings protesting this event. The novels written in this period is mainly centered on the National Struggle. Two well-known novels of Halide Edib, Ateşten Gömlek (Shirt Made from Fire) published in 1923 and Vurun Kahpeye (Hit the Whore) published between 1923 and 1924 both deal with the National Struggle. As an intellectual Turkish woman, Halide Edib was also under the influence of nationalist ideologues like Ziya Gökalp and Yusuf Akçura. In her novel Yeni Turan (New Turan) published in 1912, she explained how she understood the nationalist ideal of Turan. Halide Edib was only one of the intellectuals having nationalist sentiments in this period. Nevertheless, she is an important example of a new type of woman having European type of education and at the same time guarding the cultural elements of her society and a nationalist spirit in her own way. During the Armistice Period that the National Struggle went on, it was this type of woman that was promoted in the Turkish novels along with Anatolian women that were idealized as the mourning nurses of the nation. Therefore, one can possibly argue that in the perception of Turkish intellectuals, women had an important role in the cultural and ideological struggle against the occupation forces and the moral degeneration of the nation emanated from the existence of foreign elements in the country. Nationalism Affecting the Lives of Turkish Women: The case of Fashion Many Turkish women were also actively working for the survival of the country and they were under the influence of the rising nationalist sentiments after the occupation of the 3
Empire. Women were used to serve for the army as nurses starting from the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). They also worked in associations such as Red Crescent and founded their own associations for paramilitary reasons. The Women s Central Committee of the Red Crescent Society (Osmanlı Hilal-i Ahmer Cemiyeti Kadınlar Heyet-i Merkeziyesi), The Society for Aid to Needy Soldiers Families (Muhtaç Asker Ailelerine Muavenet Cemiyeti), and The Ottoman Women s Committee for the National Defense (Müdafaa-i Milliye Osmanlı Hanımlar Heyeti) can be enumerated to exemplify these philanthropic but at the same time nationalist associations. After the occupation of Izmir by the Greek troops on May 15, 1919 intellectual women like Halide Edib and Şükûfe Nihal appeared as spokeswomen in protest demonstrations like Fatih and Sultanahmet meetings. The examples of Nakiye Hanım who spoke against the potential internalization of Istanbul in one of these meetings and Saime Hanım who was arrested for her protest speech at the Kadıköy demonstration on May 22, 1919 can also be given. Women also worked for a range of intelligence agencies like the Police Station Society (Karakol Cemiyeti), Special Organization (Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa), and the National Defense Group (Müdafaa-ı Milliye Teşkilatı). Among those women there were also Palace women like Naime Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Abdülhamit II and Fehime Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Murad V. Other than founding their own organizations or engaging in political activities, a different way to show nationalist sentiments for Turkish women was to do it in culture to which they contributed in many ways one of which was to consume national merchandise. Fashion, in that sense, served as an important indicator of the rising nationalistic trends among Turkish women. By means of new nationalist fashion they supported the National Economy. Women were not only consumers of certain fashion items but they also conveyed their national culture with their clothing style. In that sense, Turkish women limited their 4
consumption of foreign fashions with strongly national sentiments, although they did not totally rejected European style clothing. In the popular women s press there were many articles and advertisements supporting this claim. Being extravagant in clothing expenditures and following Paris fashions wastefully was depicted like a sin in certain periodicals. As a result, Turkish Muslim women s appearance on the street in European fashions during the occupation years was protested in the press not only because of moral reasons like religious restrictions but also by referring to the political conditions of the time. Consequently, it was hoped that Turkish women would protect both their cultural norms and their weakened national pride in their clothing style. In addition to these cultural and political reasons, the economic difficulties due to World War I seem to be the one of the most important reasons for the search for simple and cheap national clothing for Turkish women. Nevertheless, according to Nicole Van Os the search for a national dress started even before the Armistice Period. The Minister of Finances Mehmed Cavid and Ottoman intellectuals like Fatma Aliye, Abdullah Cevdet, and Fatma Fahrünnisa wrote articles about the cultural and economic importance of a national dress in the journal Đçtihad (Opinion) and the women s periodical Kadınlar Dünyası (Women s World) especially after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. However, especially after the occupation of Izmir by Greek army forces there was a special hatred to the Greek tailors who for a very long time were accepted as the main introducers of European fashions to Turkish Muslim women. According to Yavuz Selim Karakışla, even before this period there had been attempts by Muslim women to start their own tailor houses but these women had to close down their shops as they could not compete with Greek tailors. Even after the Armistice period, in March 1924, an article in Resimli Ay (Illustrated Monthly) urged that Turkish women sew their own dresses in order to put a stop to the practice of calling Greek tailors to their house. In January 1921, another women s periodical, Hanım (Lady) introduced a Turkish 5
graduate of fashion design from the academy of Berlin and encouraged the readers to learn more about her fashion advises in the previous issue. Although not emphasized in all of these magazines, it is evident that by using the Turkish fashion less money would be spent to the tailoring works of non-muslim or non-turkish subjects of the Ottoman Empire. Women were encouraged to spend their money not only in Turkish fashion items but at the same time they were expected to spend less. In the women s periodical Türk Kadını (Turkish Woman), which was published twice a month between 1918 and 1919, an article titled Society of Women Who Dress Plainly (Sade Giyinen Kadınlar Cemiyeti) stated the importance of spending less money on clothing in those days of war and poverty. Just like the government, families also had to change their lives with the pressure of the high cost of living and they had to revise their budgets according to the needs of the war economy. Women were encouraged to found an association whose members would wear simple and inexpensive clothing in this article. Another suggestion came from Hüseyin Fehmi, who argued for the necessity of a standard dress for women in order to reduce the money spend for women s formal dresses. According to the author, women, just like men that wore standard frock coats, had to create a kind of clothing that they could use on every occasion. According to Hüseyin Fehmi, if the money spent for fashion was decreased, the wealth of the state would be increased, the situation of the national merchants and artisans would be developed and the national industry would be assisted. In that sense, spending money on fashion was like the assassination of the national economy. He stated that after the disasters that the Turkish nation experienced, women spending money on European fashions would only contribute to making the foreigners rich. Hüseyin Fehmi argued that a dressing system that could be used on every formal occasion without being out of fashion would save most of the national income. 6
Among the intellectual women there were some like Zehra Hakkı who encouraged women to create their own national fashion not only for economic reasons but also for cultural causes and more importantly out of practical necessities. Zehra Hakkı in her article titled Milli Moda (National Fashion) published in the periodical Đnci (Pearl) on February 1, 1919 argued that the present clothing style of Turkish Muslim women was very much influenced by Persian and Byzantine clothing and therefore it should be replaced by a new, more modern and Turkish one. In this article, Zehra Hakkı rejected the use of traditional forms of covering and wanted to get rid of the veil, which she proposed was not practical for Turkish women as their living conditions had changed to a great extent with their involvement in education and professional life. According to Zehra Hakkı, instead of being covered in ferace or çarşaf, Turkish women could suffice to use a coat and a headgear which would also be in accordance with religious obligations of Muslim women. In the article of Zehra Hakkı and in another one published in the periodical Süs (Decoration) on July 28, 1923, it was possible to read that similar attempts were made in Europe for the creation of a national fashion especially in the countries like Germany and Italy. In this second article titled Süse ve Kadınlığa Dair (On Beautification and Womanhood) the readers were informed that the attempts for the creation of a national fashion in Italy had failed because the Italian tailors had found themselves unable to compete with Paris fashions. In a similar vein, certain attempts for the creation of a national fashion among Turkish women were promoted by the press of the Armistice period. In the periodical Đnci, at the end of an article that described winter coat fashions of the year 1919, the readers were advised to wear those models created by the daughters of the Muslim tailor Osman Zeki, named Müfide and Münevver, suggesting that these models were practicable, chic and elegant, but more importantly in accordance with the Turkish taste. The same periodical also introduced a competition among its readers to design a modern yaşmak (traditional veil) on May 1, 1919. 7
The readers were informed that Turkish clothing, the headgear and even şalvar (traditional Turkish pants) were fashionable in Europe and they were told they could revise the traditional style and make it more modern if they tried. The national headgears prepared by the daughters of Osman Zeki just like the winter coats advertised in Đnci were promoted in the periodical Süs. In the following issues the readers were told that the attempt for this national headgear had been successful in the districts of Beyoğlu, Şişli and Kadıköy. The promotion of the works of these Muslim tailors, the nationalist articles and advertisements in the popular press give us a clue about the rise of cultural nationalism among Turkish women. On a statistical basis, however, we have no credible information for the success of these attempts. Conclusion As it was argued above, during the Armistice Period Turkish women were involved with a national war over fashion. With the occupation of the Ottoman Empire, the political importance of women s clothing had increased. The presence of the Allied armies and White Russian refugees in the capital city was already a treat to the traditional Muslim way of living. Protecting Turkish Muslim women from the cultural aspects of the foreign threats had become an issue of national pride. In this presentation, it is described in which ways women were involved with this cultural nationalism using the articles and advertisements in the popular press of the time. In addition, this paper gives the political, social and ideological context of the Armistice period that affected the transformation of women s fashion and made it evolve into a national fashion using the actual words of the contemporary writers. 8