Fuad Bey. It seems rather tolerable, relatively speaking,
despite some aggravation.//
24 April 1916 Monday
Nothing but aggravation. Today the
Commander and his retinue came
to the room. Evidently, he’s a general. He said some things in
Russian
but we couldn’t understand. We were going to call for our translator
Samun but they left
before we could. This is probably the new
Commander.
About two hours later we wrote another
paper asking for either money
or the designation of a store where we can get what we need. I
don’t
know, let’s see what happends this time. I wrote a letter to my father
today. I said that I
was expecting sincere letters and I asked him to send
me three of my civilian photographs. Aksenti
came again at night. Since
I didn’t have any cigarettes he gave me one. He was doing comical
things in pantomime. I asked Aksenti questions about Russian
sociology.
25 April 1916 Tuesday
After morning tea, Tahir and Rıfkı went for
a walk. When they returned
they said that supposedly we will be given three salary payments at
once.
I wonder! At midday Fahri, Kazim, Tahir and I went to see the junior
officers and we sat on
Ethem’s bed. We commiserated quite a bit and
they gave us tea and cigarettes. Today a Cossack
officer whom we had
seen before came and told us that Trabzon had fallen; that Turkish
delegates
are negotiating with the Allied Powers in Rome and
because they’re angry with the Bulgarians
they’re going to return Edirne
to us; and that America has declared war on Germany. Then he left.
This evening we had a discussion abut scientific things and Rıfkı was
making wild claims but
then he agreed with us. The matter under
discussion was the condition of a rock suspended in
air.
26 April 1916 Wednesday
Two fellows went to the Command about lack
of money but in vain.
They said that we will be moved in three days and since money comes
from Tblisi they couldn’t give us an advance and that because they will
cover the debts
incurred to the designated grocer here it wouldn’t be
possible to give us money anyway. We went
to the bath but it was full
of other officers so we came back and didn’t go again. Supposedly
the
aide said that this bath is being used for the move. Spring has come to
Sarıkamış and we spend our
time observing it.
27 April 1916 Thursday
In the morning Zühdü and I went for a short
walk to the other officers’
area. We chatted with Hakkı who said that they’ll give us money and
move us this evening. I wonder! In the afternoon Salah and a junior
officer whose name I didn’t learn
came and then a bit later junior officers
Faik and one whose name I don’t know came, as well. We chatted
and
we were able to offer them tea. Salah talked at length with Zühdü about
the Committee for
Union and Progress, Hamid, the war, and Enver Paşa.
Salah favored the Allied Powers on every
subject. At night Fahri, my
bedmate, and I discussed engineering and marriage. We went to sleep
late.
28 April 1916 Friday
I got up early this morning because the
Russians had taken the
opportunity yesterday to remove my bed. I’m sleeping on the floor and
whenever somebody sweeps I breathe the dust. In the afternoon the
Commander’s aide, Şıtabes Kaptıyan, and
Çerkez Mehmet came to our
room and examined our accounts. They told us to go to the other
officers
at three o’clock, European time, so at two thirty we went to the Command
and from there to
the place where the other officers are. We spoke with
Basri and Osman. Then, following the road
that heads east from the
Command we walked for quite a while before coming to a hospital where
we
would all be examined. This is where a wounded Russian prisoner was.
The hospital was quite nice
and well-organized. We waited a bit.
Then
the majors group came, too. They wrote our names and examined
us. A
Russian doctor noticed my yellowish color and asked the reason for it.
I said that it had
worsened because I wasn’t sick and I couldn’t walk
around freely- lack of air. Of course, there are
may effects of thought.
When the examination was over we came straight home. For us the
examination
was proof that we would be moved. As usual we chatted
among ourselves at night.
Trabzon, Bitlis and İspir are Retaken
29 April 1916 Saturday
The promise the Commander had previously
given us (albeit three
days ago) came to pass. But although we talked about going to the
Commander, no one did and no one wanted to. In the afternoon Zühdü,
Fahri and I went to the
other junior officers’ room. They told us that
four more junior officer prisoners had come and
according to these
newcomers, an army had come to the front and another one was coming
separately. They said that Trabzon,
Bitlis and İspir had been retaken
and that before they were captured
six thousand Russians had been
taken prisoner. Then they said that not much money had been
given to
the courier from Tblisi for us
and that clothes and boots would be
given to the captive
officers. Today it rained briefly but heavily and
all night it continued to rain heavily
intermittently.
30 April 1916 Sunday
We made backgammon pieces until noon. In
the afternoon two Cossack
officer prisoners came. They were Petersburg Cossacks and very
mannerly. The one named Juram knew French a bit so we chatted. They
invited us to their
room. Since Hurşid and Mustafa had gone
to the
market, six of us went. There was another prisoner
in their room, an
infantryman named Kara Havar. They gave us chocolate, biscuits, bread,
butter, various kinds of candy, tea and two glasses of vodka each. We
were well pleased and we
talked for three hours. Then they came to our
room. In the evening after dinner the Petersburg
Cossacks came to our
room dressed in strange outfits. All they had on their backs were
undershirts. They were drunk. We gave each of them tea. They had
brought biscuits and chocolate. We ate
and sang songs. One of them
is Polish. He praised Hamid and was angry at Enver Paşa. I was
annoyed. Fortunately, they didn’t stay long. At this time Mustafa was
lying down and we were
angry that he insisted on not getting up. These
fellows are strange. What a shame we say
and they’re crude, mannerless
fellows.
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