Who owns Karagöz?

The story goes as follows: the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism prepared a special catalogue for the third Intergovernmental Meeting of UNESCO for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage that took place last month in Istanbul. In that catalogue, the Turkish side presented Karagöz-that famous hero of the Turkish shadow theatre- as an integral part of the popular theatre tradition during the Ottoman period. The main idea was that Karagoz is part of the Ottoman-Turkish intangible culture and not of the Greek popular heritage. However, it seems that the content of the catalogue had some serious oversights which caused the reaction of the people of UNIMA-Turkey, (the Turkish leg of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette) who accuse the Turkish ministry of "surrendering our Karagöz to the Greeks with our very own hands."

Let’s see what does Mustafa Mutlu,the founding member of UNIMA-Turkey complain about: he claims that the producers of the catalogue used figures which appear in the Greek Karagöz, like the figure of the "pig" or the figure of a Jew as a Rabbi. "The pig is not a figure used in the Anatolian Karagöz," says Mr. Mutlu, who seems to be very angry about this "hellenization" of this Anatolian popular culture figure who entertained the people of this land for almost two centuries. "The editor of the catalogue had no idea," claims Mr. Mutlu who is supported by Mr. Hayrettin Ivgın the General Secretary of UNIMA-Turkey, who is planning to send a very severe letter to the Turkish Culture Ministry complaining about the appearance of the "pig figure" in the catalogue and the transformation of the traditional figure of the Jew into a "Rabbi". Mr. Ivgın has got more reasons to complain: "fez" Ğthe traditional red cap used in late Ottoman times by the army first and then by civilians after the 19th century- is wrongly claimed that it was worn in 17th and 18th centuries, he says.

Of course, the strong warning of Mr. Mutlu that Karagöz may be fallen in the worng hands of the Greeks, gave me enough impetus to make a quick search about the Greek claims about Karagöz.

There are of course the "everything is Greek" school where by Karagöz and generally shadow theatre is supposed to be traced back in the religious ceremonies of Kaveiria and Eleusinia in ancient Greece, who were spread to the East by Alexander the Great's campaign and then came back to the West through India, Persia and Anatolia. But the majority of Greek sources believe that the Karagöz figure, that black-eyed shadow theater figure, came from Anatolia to Greece but only after Greece gained its independence from the Ottomans. Whether the original figures can be traced in Indonesia, China, or India, the fact is, experts say, that "the use of shadow to represent life and its reflection of the human figure on the white cloth were probably born out of the fire at the center of a nomadic tent-perhaps around the 11th century.

The general belief is that the Greek Karagöz is a development of the Ottoman Karagöz, although there is a Greek legend that claims the Ottoman Karagöz was the creation of a Greek named Mavromatis (Kara-göz) who was living in China. When falling on hard times around 1850, he decides to set up a "theatre of shadows" where he cut out figures on camel skin and presented them behind a screen of cloth. The main figure was somebody called "Mavromatis" (Kara-göz). Mavromatis at some stage comes to Istanbul and works together with some Yannis Brahalis who then goes to Pireus and starts Karagöz shows in coffee shops.

But the founder of the Greek Karagöz is undoubtedly a Mimaros, born in Patras in 1865, who made very important innovations to the "stage props": he is thought to have established the main stage environment i.e. the poor hut of Karagöz on the left and the Saray of the Vizir on the right. He was the one, also, who adjusted the repertory of the Greek Karagöz with themes of Greek history (but always in an Ottoman fantastic context) and added various Greek heroes who go as far back as Alexander the Great himself!

After coffee and baklava, it does not surprise me that the ethnicity of Karagöz could preoccupy the minds of those who are responsible for safeguarding the tangible heritage of our countries. Culture, like history fall often victim to sentimental or political considerations at the expense of any cool joint effort to put things of the past in the right order. As Vassilis Rotas, the founder of Greek popular theatre at the beginni ng of the last century said: "Karagöz is a Turk who became a Romios here, always hit by bad fortune, always hungry, always beaten up. This spectacle of shadow theatre unknown to the Greek, Roman or Western European culture appeared first in the East."

Talking about sentimental or political considerations: searching through UNIMA sites, I opened UNIMA-Turkey with the figure of the Ottoman Karagöz dominating the page. Then I clicked on the UNIMA-HELLAS to compare the two sites. Unfortunately, I got the now familiar response: "on the order of the Ankara 9th Court of First Instance dated Feb. 4 2008, and according to the ruling number 2008/140 the entrance to this page is prohibited."