Actualites - Chypre Albion

Le Charivari was an illustrated newspaper published by Charles Philipon and Gabriel Auber in Paris from 1832 to 1937. It published political cartoons and reviews. After 1835, when the government banned political caricature, Le Charivari began publishing satires of everyday life. Ownership of the paper changed often due to issues with government censorship, and related taxes and fines. Le Charivari published weekly from 1936-1937. Le Charivari was used as a prototype for the British Punch magazine, subtitled The London Charivari. A number of political cartoons which carried Cyprus related themes appeared in Le Charivari in 1878. Their content relates to geopolitical events that led to the signing of the Cyprus Convention (AngloTurkish Convention) by which the Ottomans leased Cyprus to the British. In fact, they reflect in a humorous vein the French view on these developments. The two main causes which led to the agreement, to which the Cypriots themselves had been no party, were growing unrest in the Balkans and the rivalry between Britain and Russia known as the Grand Game. The creation of a ‘Greater Bulgaria’ with Russian support alarmed the British who wanted to keep the Russians out of the Mediterranean region and, thus, secure their maritime routes to India. The very life line of the British Empire was at stake. The convention allowed the British to use Cyprus as a Place d’ Armes in return for diplomatic and military support to the ailing Ottoman Empire which was seen as the only bulwark to Russian advances. As the cartoons suggest, this arrangement did not go unnoticed by the French. They felt that they had a more rightful claim to the island, which was a French kingdom for 300 years, than the British did. In the cartoon by Cham, Britain appears to be helping the fallen Ottoman Empire rise on its feet. The helping hand comes at a price since a vital part of the Ottoman Empire’s body, in this case the very heart, is foregone.