Enduring Victoria: Iconoclasm and Restoration at the British Embassy in Tehran

The Government Art Collection (GAC) shares British art, culture and creativity through displays in UK Government buildings worldwide. It is the most widely distributed collection of British art, displayed in 129 countries where it is seen by thousands of visitors each year, and makes an important contribution to UK cultural diplomacy. New acquisitions continually develop the diversity of representation within the collection to better reflect contemporary British society.The Collection holds a number of portraits of Queen Victoria that are displayed in UK diplomatic buildings in Moscow, Paris, Tehran, Tokyo, Tunis, Washington and New Delhi, amongst others.  Over two centuries, these portraits have silently witnessed Britain’s changing position in the world while recalling her former influence. The first part of this article will focus on George Hayter’s portrait of Queen Victoria, painted 1862-63, and displayed in the British Ambassador's residence in Tehran, Iran. This is one of many autograph copies of the artist’s original 1838-40 coronation portrait, currently on display at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. It features an unusual Persian inscription and was commissioned specifically for the new embassy building in Tehran, completed in 1875, shortly before Queen Victoria was entitled Empress of India, and has been displayed there ever since.The second part of the article will reflect on the display of art recently installed in the British Ambassador's Residence in Tehran, and the curatorial challenges this presented in a country with a long and troubled relationship with Britain. This new display was itself a consequence of an iconoclastic attack on Victoria’s image in 2011 when the embassy was stormed by Iranian protesters - the latest event in a turbulent history.At a time when the UK is having a profound national conversation about how it engages internationally, can Victoria’s image help to build cultural relations in diplomatic spaces or is it only a relic of an imperial past?

The Foundation of the Free Republican Party and Subsequent Developments According to the British Embassy Reports

The History of Turkish Democracy from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic is a striking topic for social scientists. They exert themselves to understand dynamics that changed or remained stable during the evolution from sultanate to democracy. One of the most studied topics of the History of Turkish Democracy is doubtless the experience of the Free Republican Party. Qualified as the second trial of a transition to the multiparty system against the early period of the Young Republic’s single-party system, the Free Republican Party is evaluated both as a private attempt to resolve the tension between Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and İsmet (İnönü) on behalf of Mustafa Kemal and as Turkey’s reaction to the Great Depression in 1929. Established as a guided opposition party, it had a profound influence on Turkish political life, despite its short 99-day lifespan. The party was intensely supported by the masses and pushed for power. In historiography, the party’s experience has only been written about with reference to the contemporary press, memoirs, and Turkish archival documents, overlooking the British Embassy Reports. This study aims to contribute to the historiography of the Free Republican Party by comparing different discourses and paradigms in the party’s historiography with the English documents on the foundation of the Free Republican Party and subsequent developments.

Introduction

The book is about Eleftherios Venizelos, the great Greek leader of the modern period, his achievements and personality. It addresses Greek nationalism, political leadership, and Venizelos's influence on Greek history and politics. He dominated Greece from 1910 to 1936. He worked for the expansion of Greek territory to include as many Greek communities as possible (the 'Great Idea'). Also for reform and modernization of Greek institutions, a more just society, and to bring Greece closer to western Europe. The author describes his charisma, liberalism, and decisive role in the constitutional and political reforms of his early administrations, leading to the Balkan Wars in which Greece's territory and population were almost doubled. A second volume will deal with the First World War, the division of the country into hostile Venizelist and anti-Venizelist camps in the so-called national schism, the Asia Minor catastrophe and Venizelos's subsequent career. The author states his personal interest, symbolized by the British Embassy Athens, formerly Venizelos's house, where he served as British ambassador.

Turmoil in the Capital: British Publication Alarmed the Hamidian Regime

During the early years of Abdülhamid II’s reign, there were several attempts to reinstate ex-Sultan Murad V to the throne. One of these was the initiative of Ali Suâvi, which has come to be known as the Çırağan Incident. Although the Ottoman press had to be very circumspect in reporting Suâvi’s attempt and its aftermath, the British newspaper of the Ottoman Empire, The Levant Herald, was instead able to carry the news about the incident for several days by framing its reportage in pro-government terms. The situation changed, however, when a letter from a reader praising Ali Suâvi and supporting the claim of Murad V to the throne was published by the paper and spurred the Sublime Porte into action. Although the authorship of the letter remains unknown, it is doubtful that it was actually written by an average reader of the paper; some sources instead point to Cleanthi Scalieri, the Master of the Prodoos Masonic Lodge. After publication, the proprietor of The Levant Herald, Edgar Whitaker, took refuge in the British Embassy, resulting in the confiscation of the printing house and the remaining copies of the newspaper on the order of the Sublime Porte. Whitaker protested that he had informed the Marshal of the Palace, Said Pasha, regarding the letter’s contents, and that he was now the subject of death threats and harassment; Said Pasha responded by denying any knowledge of the matter. The dismissal and exile of Said Pasha brought only further tension. The British Foreign Ministry claiming that the Sublime Porte had acted beyond its jurisdiction according to the capitulations. In the midst of negotiations between the British and Ottoman governments over the transfer of Cyprus, the furor over the letter and the newspaper provoked major discussion in the European press, and caused negative public reaction in Britain towards the actions of the Ottoman government. This article focuses on the anonymous letter published in The Levant Herald, and examines the course of these developments primarily through their representation in the British press.

Cross-border Entrepreneurial Education, Development and Knowledge and Technology Transfer: Experiences with the Cambridge–Riga Venture Camp Programme—A Reflective Report

Over a 6-year period, a collaboration has been developed between a group in Cambridge, UK, and two Latvian Universities, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and other organisations, including Riga City Council, supported by the British Embassy Riga and the Latvian Embassy in London, enabling structured processes to be developed to identify aspiring entrepreneurs based in Latvia and Estonia and provide education, coaching, mentoring and encouragement first in the home territory, leading to an intense whole-week development venture camp in Cambridge for selected candidates. The programme was extended to provide ongoing business development support for a number of entrepreneurial companies with global potential, and the developing venture camp activities attracted, supported and helped accelerate the evolution in Riga of an innovative ecosystem providing leadership in the Baltics. Practical examples of cross-border knowledge and technology transfers have been recorded as part of the Cambridge–Riga Venture Camp process. This report presents the development, content and outcomes of this innovative project aimed at supporting the emergence of entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities of Latvian delegates to the project. Detailed appendices including data and narrative based survey of outcomes and assessments containing structured feedback from delegates participating in the 2020 Cambridge-Riga Venture Camp are available as the Supplementary material online. This is an interim report, since the activity is ongoing and continuously developing.

The use of humour in diplomatic tweets: The affiliative potential of ridicule

Today diplomacy increasingly relies on tweets. Yet, as tweets only allow for 280 characters, statements must be brief and impactful, which encourages the use of humour in conveying one’s message. This article scrutinizes irony and ridicule in diplomatic interactions. Even though these forms of humour may antagonize parties and even turn issues into a security concern, this article points out that they also have an affiliative aspect and could play a conflict-mediating role. Because humour, especially irony, is easy to misunderstand (especially in cross-cultural settings), many warn against using them in diplomatic exchanges. Nevertheless, I will argue that they are ideal for expressing multi-layered messages, enabling the speaker to rely on what is often called ‘constructive ambiguity’, which is often useful in diplomatic conduct. Two case studies illustrate the argument. The first focuses on cartoons ridiculing President Wilson in the early 20th century for his reluctance to commit the US to join WWI (suggesting that cartoons of the time might be predecessors of today’s tweets), and the second on tweets published by the British Embassy in London apropos of the Skripal case (offering an example how humorous tweets can convey multi-layered, complex messages).