Creating an Enemy: Children’s Magazines and Different Faces of Enmity (1913-1918)

With the emergence and the rise of nation-states, children became more important subjects and agents of state policies. This new context became more apparent in the Ottoman Empire during the Second Constitutional period, specifically because of the Balkan Wars, which instigated the rise of Turkish nationalism within the empire. The state’s ambition for raising strong, patriotic, and nationalist generations increased the level of its intervention to all areas including literature, education, games and body. Therefore, nationalist discourse, through different intermediaries including intellectuals, publications and organizations, became palpable in the everyday lives of children. Children’s magazines published after the Balkan Wars had the goal of creating the ideal nationalists. Also, they were good sources of depicting the enemies of the state, and uniting and mobilizing children against them. In this paper, I examine how children’s magazines represent the enemies of the Ottoman Empire through games, illustrations, literary texts and advertising. I have choosen two children’s magazines to examine, Talebe Defteri [Student’s Notebook] (1913-19), and Çocuk Duygusu [Children’s Emotion] (1913). Through the examination of these magazines, methods of mobilization of children against the enemies of the state and the image of the enemy can be better understood.