February, Fuad Bey mentions "Tahir of Sivas" as being
one of his cellmates. For Tahir Baykal's remarkable
POW story click here to read it: Tahir Baykal //
Sarıkamış 1916
22 February 1916
Tuesday
Morning came. Again, this time they gave us
each 10 pieces of square
sugar. They brought bread. With these I filled my
stomach. At noon
time they interrogated each of us separately. They kept asking about
money. They asked me my name, my father’s name , my rank and
whether or not I had any
money. I answered and wrote in French
that I didn’t have any money and I signed
it. After interrogation was
conducted, we had vegetable soup as usual. As an extra, they
brought
a meatball and some macaroni for everyone. In the interrogation there
were
three officers. One of these spoke fluent Turkish. Apparently,
this low-life traitor
was Artilleryman Rifat, who had defected to the
Russians, told them some secrets and now
was wearing a Russian outfit.
At 5 in
the evening, European style, this time they loaded us three to a
cart and we departed from Hasankale. A number of places in
Hasankale,
including the Government House, had burned.
Outside a village the
Armenians we encountered were heading toward Erzurum. Some of
them were workers, some
soldiers. They continually bombarded us
with curses. I felt very badly. I was going to cry like a
child. With
some difficulty, at eight thirty we reached Köprüköy. After
waiting a
while we entered a sheltered place. It was spacious but a mess.
23 February 1916
Wednesday
Morning came. First they gave us five
pieces of sugar. Later they
gave us a rice dish and corn mush, better prepared than on
other days.
We filled our stomachs well. It was eleven o’clock. We departed
Köprüköy. Afterwards, my eyes
kept looking to the right, toward
Karataş and Kepenek, and
I was remembering the life I lived in
those places. Sometime after six thirty we reached Azay.
This
village was in ruins. We settled into a rather large tent here.
This
was the Russian soldiers’ tent and they were upset that we were put
into their tent
and they had to go elsewhere, almost to the point of
rebellion. But the officers
came and prevented this and also saved
us from an incident that could have
possibly caused us harm. Our
area was narrow. I passed the night uncomfortably, in particular
because of the fleas.
24 February 1916
Thursday
In the morning we boarded the carts without
even drinking tea.
This time they gave us each four pieces of sugar and some
bread.
We departed. After a while we
passed about 200 meters to the left
of Ardos
village and later we came to Zanzak village where we
went into a tent. Everywhere we
saw up to this point was in ruins.
They gave us tea and bread in the tent. We filled our
stomachs.
In the tent, a large portable samovar and tea cart that had been
mounted
on wheels caught my eye. A bit later we left here and
passed a village on the
left some distance away, whose name I didn’t
learn, and then we reached Zimnik village. But we
didn’t stop here
and kept going. To the left of this village and up ahead is
where the
ruins of Kötek village are found.Quite a long while later we came
to
Karaurgan and ten of us were put into a small room.
In another
neighborhood, 18 people were settled. On the way here we saw
quite a few fire trenches and barbed wire
fences. These had a bad
effect on me. We didn’t go into Karaurgan. There were a
few
military buildings in sight. This village is quite big and
well-
organized. There are quite a few
Armenians here. At night they
gave us tea, sugar and bread.
25 February 1916 Friday
In the morning we drank tea with our own
sugar. A bit later they
brought cabbage soup and rice mush. After we ate these we left
Karaurgan. About half an hour later we saw Ebül-biad vıllage from
a distance of about
six hundred meters. This place was mostly
Greek. Another half an hour from here we
passed by Zab village,
where mostly Moslems live. About 16 kilometers from Sarıkamış,
at a stopping point in a forest,
we each drank tea and rested. We
left here and reached Sarıkamış at the
last prayer time.
The road from Karaurgan to Sarıkamış was rather
well-paved and
it passed through a forested area known as the Soğanlı Forests. Upon
our
arrival in Sarıkamış we alighted at the command headquarters.
They wrote down our names according to our rank.
Because I didn’t
want to get separated from Şerif I
wanted to be registered as a second
lieutenant but it didn’t happen. The others were
prevented too so I
was left with the reserve officers and cadets.
They separated the
officers of higher rank from active officers and
officer candidates and
took them to another place.
They brought us reserves to a barracks.
We
stayed in a little room. On the way here
the snowy, icy ground hurt
my aching foot. In the room there was a bed and a bench.
Otherwise,
it was absolutely empty. We spent the night on this bed and bench and
on the window sills. Once again I awoke alone and since I hadn’t
established an
acquaintance with anyone yet, I remained silent.
Four
or Five People Sleeping on a Wooden Bed
26 February 1916 Saturday
Morning came. They brought tea in a big old
bucket and they gave
us some sugar too. A bit later they offered us cabbage soup.
In the
afternoon a few Russian officers
came to us and gave us each five
rubles based on
the salaries allotted to us. We obtained the evening
meal with this money. Today I wrote
my father a letter informing him
that I’m a prisoner. Some of it was in French. Our
days are spent in
the room. This is essentially a prison for officers. But I haven’t been
able to find out about the interior of the barracks yet. We had an
uncomfortable night because
although we’re willing to use the bare
boards, there were four or five of us on
the bare board bed. There
are 9 of us here. Cemal, who was wounded by a Cossack sword,
was
taken to the hospital for treatment. The other fellows are Zühdü from
Edirne, Fahri
from Trabzon, Kazim from Aziziye, Hurşid from
Amasya, Rıfkı from Adana,
Mustafa from Zile, Tahir from Sivas
and me.
27 February 1916 Sunday
We spent the day here. At noon
a Russian officer came and told
us we could henceforth walk around outside of the barracks. He
left.
We got today’s meal from the market again ourselves. Everything is
expensive, 3, 4
times higher than the price in Turkey. Bread is
5 kuruş per okka ((2.8 lbs.)) and tobacco
is the same. Today another
bed was brought to the room but it’s insufficient. Our bodies
are
filthy and full of fleas. The fact that we can’t find underwear and in
fact not even a place
to lay down makes us all very uncomfortable.
Fuad Bey was told he might be sent to Nargin, one of the
worst Russian POW camps.
28 February 1916 Monday
Since it’s still winter it’s cold out and,
consequently, snowy. Again
today a Russian officer came and he knew French
well so he spoke to
us completely in French. I couldn’t understand him all that
well. All
I could understand was that in a few days we would be sent to an
island
((probably Nargin)) in the Caspian Sea near
Baku. We spent
our money on sustenance. We paid three and a half rubles for a small
pan of food that would
cost 5, or at most 10 kuruş in Turkey. A
normal shaving blade costs two manat. At night we sang songs and
poems until midnight to pass the time. But
there’s still a discomfort.
I find Zühdü to be more compatible than the others here so we’ve
become friends with each other. There’s not much place to walk
around.
29 February 1916 Sunday
Our time passes very uncomfortably here and
since our bodies are
dirty and flea-ridden we are extremely out of sorts.
Although I got
cleaned up during the day I still wasn’t comfortable at night and I
couldn’t sleep. At midnight I had to
wash myself again. In the
evening the Commander
called on the telephone, asking whether
or not we could eat at the
designated restaurant. We answered yes
and told him that we were in urgent need of
underwear and money.
//END of PART XIV//
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