Sultan Mehmed V Reshad of Turkey as a monkey
What my beautiful Councils have given me! Sultan Mehmed V Reshad as a monkey representing Turkey's involvement in World War One, a European Conflagration which the Sultan was somewhat talked into getting involved with by his advisors, against his true will. Ths slant of the cartoon is really to make the conflict appear to Turkey more of a temptation than a fear. Sultan Mehmed V Reshad of Turkey (1844 - 1918). Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1909 until his death in 1918, Mehmed - original name Mehmed Resad - spent much of his life in seclusion until the forced abdication of his brother Sultan Abdul Hamid II at the hands of the Young Turks in 1909. A kindly gentle man with an interest in Persian literature, Mehmed was effectively little more than a puppet Sultan whose actions were directed by leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress. Mehmed was little able to govern of his own accord and thus accepted direction from Young Turk leaders including Enver Pasha
