Vatan newspaper is shut down
Broadcasting Turkish programs from a shortwave radio station (WNBI) in New York, former grand vizier Tevfik Pasha’s granddaughter Hümeyra Yenici’s interview with famed comedian Charlie Chaplin was published as news in the newspaper Vatan. Due to the content of the interview and an accompanying photograph lampooning Hitler, Vatan was shut down for 60 days on December 8, 1942.
In the interview, Chaplin had told his favorite Nasreddin Hodja joke, as he was allegedly a fan of the satirical Sufi:
Telling his neighbor that the donkey was not in his barn in order not to lend it, the Hodja was caught lying when the donkey began to hee-haw. Turning to the angry neighbor he said, “Who will you believe? The donkey or me?
Using this story as an metaphor, Chaplin’s interview concluded with the following remarks: “Today, the world is preoccupied with the same question. Will we believe the people or the donkey?” In order to put a face to the metaphor, Vatan newspaper published a photograph from Chaplin’s parody of Hilter, The Great Dictator.
The article naturally led to a formal complaint by Ambassador Franz von Papen and the newspaper was closed down. In his notes, İnönü wrote that the incident was a provocation.
