After leaving Tbilisi, Fuad Bey's train moves through
Ganja to Baku. From there it's up the Caspian Sea coast
to Derbent and Petrovsk (Makhachkale).
6 May 1916 Saturday
In the morning when we arose we found that
our train was not in front
of the hospital but rather at the Tbilisi perimeter station
where we first
stopped. The weather was
bad, it was raining. We stayed here until
evening and, of course, we were bored. I bought a black fur cap for 13
rubles from an Iranian cap seller
who came here. Today we heard that
the Turkish 3rd Army Corps, together with Germans and
Bulgarians,
came ashore at Batumi with a force of about 60,000. The Russians are
surrounded at
Trabzon. We also heard that control of the Black Sea
was now in our hands after two dreadnoughts
escaped from Austria and
came to Istanbul, along with four other fleet ships and some other
nice
things…this evening at seven thirty we departed the Tbilisi perimeter
station en route to
Baku. We said our goodbyes to Tbilisi,
which we
could only view from a distance anyway. The rail
line from her is
double track. The terrain is flat, a plain. Since the weather was rainy
and dark
we went to sleep early. In any event, our train stopped for
long periods of time at stations along
the way so we didn’t travel very
far.
Batumi-Baku Oil Transport Pipelines
7 May 1916 Sunday
In the morning when I got up our train had
come to the Zefemi station
and after a brief stop we moved on. At 8 o’clock we came to the
city
of Ganca, which is also called Elizabetpol, and found it to be quite big
and beautiful. It
has a tramway. We stopped for about three hours and
got various things to eat from the market.
All the Muslims felt sorry for
us. We sat in the station restaurant and drank milk. It was very
pleasant.
After leaving here we passed a few more stations. Of note, we passed
over a 300
meter bridge that crosses the Kura River which flows
into the Caspian Sea. The terrain is
completely flat. The plain area that
touches the Kura River is quite beautiful, cultivated and fertile.
At the
same time it’s also very broad and long. It’s length is 400 verst or 420
kilometers. The other portion of the
terrain extending from the Kura
River is swamp. There are some ponds and
some of these smell rather
bad. The double rail line still continues up until Yevlah station and
after that it’s single track. It was evening when we came to Kürdemir
station. I went to sleep at Hurludere station but before sleeping we
saw many stations
and villages, most of which were quite backwards.
In fact, some were reminiscent of ancient
times. The Batumi-Baku oil
transport line follows this route. The weather is rainy.
Oil platforms in Baku.
8 May 1916 Monday
It was morning when we came to Sanhaçlı
station and I woke up. The
broadness of the plain diminished. On our left there were small
hills
near the road and the Caspian Sea could be seen on our right. The train
continued on, the
terrain was uncultivated and infertile. To the left of
Eyibad station and beyond the left side of
Balajarı station there are so
many factory smokestacks that it looks like a forest.
These are for the
oil wells.
As our train proceeded, Baku looked
lusterless under the fire and
sharp light of the sun. The city is on a ridge that juts out into the sea.
It’s external appearance is
not very pleasing. At 11 o’clock our train
reached the Baku station and came to a halt next to a
station hard by
the sea. Then after getting permission we went into the city and
walked around the market
near the station. The entrance to the city
is nice, with very nice looking buildings that resemble
Istanbul to
some degree The avenues are wide (more than 25 meters) and there’s
a horse-drawn
tramway. But it’s expensive. I bought a pair of socks
(blackish) for two rubles (25 kuruş). When
we came back from the
market they put us all in the bath where we were washed. Our clothes
were
disinfected and they gave us underwear and a shirt. We stayed
in a room and wore robes.
We passed the night rather pleasantly on
beds… in a dream I saw that my father and mother had
passed on to
the next world. I was very
troubled and disturbed by this.
9 May 1916 Tuesday
In the morning when we woke up we went back
to the rail cars. The
things we had left there had been disinfected and were lying in a
heap all mixed up. We sorted them out
with some difficulty. This
morning a regrettable and ugly thing
happened. One of the fellows
hid a hospital robe, or more precisely he wanted to steal it. When
the
hospital guards noticed that they were missing a robe they of course
suspected us.
Ultimately, and with great embarrassment, the robe was
produced. Very regrettable…a bit later we got
permission to go and
walk around the city. Since there were so many of us I wasn’t able to
get the things
I wanted the first time but the second time I was
successful. I got a notebook and some other things.
Baku was really
quite beautiful and nice with many splendid buildings. There’s a
Turkish newspaper by
the name of ‘İqbal’. The city is mostly Moslem.
There are Turks, Tatars, some Iranians and Armenians.
Russians are
very few. When the Moslems (Turks, Tatars) see us they feel very
badly. The Armenians
look at us like executioners and we react harshly
toward the Armenians. If they ask something of say
something we
give them a very hard and tart reply to their words and looks. There is
a pier near
the station. There are quite a few small ferries in the Caspian
Sea. We said farewell to this place at 8
o’clock in the evening. We
passed by many gas depots and factories in the vicinity of the Baku
station and as night fell we reached Balaçarı (Baladzhary) station.
The rail line from Baku to Buza is double
track. We waited here
quite a while and went to sleep.
The ancient citidal at Derbent.
10 May 1916 Wednesday
Morning came. I woke up a bit before we
came to Açmazi station,
which is surrounded by a rather broad plain. On our left we could
see the
snow on the high peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. On our
right there were many trees extending
further beyond. Some of the
treeless areas of the plain on our right constituted the horizon and
in
some nearby areas we could see the Caspian Sea. At around noon
we came to the Derbent city
station. The population here is mostly
Turkish and Evyanık. The city sits on a hillside and is quite
big.
We couldn’t go into the city but we passed on some good news to
the people here. They too told us
that the Besarabia area of Vekiev
had been freed from the Russians and that the Russians are in
difficult straits these days. They said that they’re praying that the
Turks occupy all of the
Caucasus and liberate them.
,
From Derbent we followed the shoreline but some small rock
formations and mounds sometimes blocked the view of the sea. It
was evening when we came to Otyasin
station. The weather was
black, cloudy. The moon was obscured so we couldn’t see anything
outside. At night we followed the shoreline. It was about 9 o’clock
at night when we reached
Petrovsk station, which has electricity.
We could see that this place is quite a big and
well-organized city.
We didn’t stay long and were soon on the move again. After
chatting a bit I went to
sleep.
//END of PART XXIV//
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