24 Mart 2019 Pazar

TNT History Mini-Series: Brutal Turkish POW Reports from Russia (1914-1918)/Part V



vetluga memoir ile ilgili görsel sonucu
An excellent diary of life in the Varnavino
prison camp.


17.       The report of Major Ali Sami Efendi, the Commander of 
the 3rd Battalion of the 54th Regiment, who returned after 
being held as a prisoner in Russia:

I was taken prisoner by a regular army detachment.  Since there
were no means of transportation available, we remained at 
Satılmış Gedik near Kars for 4 months, during which time we 
slept on wooden boards, without clothing and in filthy 
conditions.  Appeals that we made to the Russians were 
answered with the statement that we had to make do with the 
50 rubles per month we received.  However, 50 rubles were not 
sufficient for our food.  Nevertheless, the Russian commander 
let us get our provisions from the warehouse at state prices, in 
order to protect us from the Armenian profiteer grocers.  In this 
way, he provided us with support.   Subsequently, we went via 
Moscow and Nijni Novgorod to the town of Varnavino in 
Kostroma province, where the Russians provide us with grass 
pillows for our rest.  Some of the Russians reacted coldly and 
unmannerly toward our complaints about food and 
administration but there were other Russians who treated us 
well.

                                     *     *     *

//Ed. Note: Vetluga is the camp where Fuad
Tokad (TNT Matchbox Diary) was held. His
fellow inmate Kâzim had Fuad bey write
letters in French to a Russian girl. Later, Kâzim
tried to escape but was caught and beaten to
death like Hayri Efendi.//


18.       Memorandum dated 7 January 1918 and written by Major 
General Remzi Paşa, a member of the Ottoman delegation in 
Petrograd, to the Ministry of War:

It has been determined that the food problem among our 
prisoners in Kostroma has become absolutely intolerable.  
Despite Russian promises that they will look into the matter,
the tumult in Russia means that there is no chance of these 
promises being kept  so cash is the only solution.   One of the 
officers held at the Vetluga camp, Hayri Efendi of Edirne (he 
was a fortress artilleryman at Erzurum), tried to escape 
because of hunger.  It has been learned that his brain was 
smashed by Russians using rifle butts and he died.  The 
Russian government has made no effort to bring the 
perpetrators to justice.

                                  *     *     *                                

19.       Letter sent to Russian leader Kerensky in Petrograd by
Colonel Ahmedmedcit Bey, the highest-ranking  officer 
among the 105 officer held captive in the city of Nikolovsk:

Our sick are not taken in a timely manner to the hospital and 
the hospital demands  money for medicine from us out of the 
50 rubles that doesn’t even cover our food.  In accordance 
with regulations called ‘Kartucika’, an officer interferes with 
our obtaining even items that are essential for us.  The lack of
food is diminishing our strength daily and putting us at 
death’s door.

                                  *     *     *

pow trains ile ilgili görsel sonucu

20.       Information contained in an article dated 22 June 1916 of
 the Frankfurt Zeitung newspaper:

The Russian military administration has transported prisoners 
of war at certain times to Siberia in sealed train cars.  At many
of the stations along the way Russian Tatars wanted to help the
Ottoman prisoners but the train cars were not opened.  Out of 
800 prisoners transported from Krasnoyarsk to Primor in 
February 1916, only 200 made it to the destination alive, the rest
died en route.   In January 1916, two train wagons carrying 
Turkish prisoners were forgotten for two days in the fiercest 
time of winter.  When Russian railway workers opened the 
trains wagons by chance, they saw the bodies of  more than 
half the soldiers in the wagons who had died from freezing 
and suffocation.

                                    *     *     *

21.       Report dated 25 December 1916, regarding information 
obtained from the Berlin Turkish Embassy:

The weak fellows are being made to work in forced labor camps 
wearing tattered clothes and in bare feet, together with elderly 
people past the age of 70.

                                     *     *     *

Ä°lgili resim

22.       Oruc Orcef’s article printed in the November 1917 issue 
of “Açık” newspaper, published in Baku, about our prisoners 
on Nargin Island near Baku:

A delegation comprised of the Swedish and Danish consuls, 
a member of the Himmet Party, German doctor Nerimov, Ağa 
Mehmet of the Mehmedov Muhacat Party and Mor Seluf from
the İbrahimov and Muavenet Society visited Nargin Island.  
When the delegation saw the condition of the Ottoman 
prisoners on the island they couldn’t help but cry.  There 
were 1,200 patients in a 300-patient capacity hospital; while 
some of the patients looked to be at death’s door, other were 
screaming for food and water; in another area, 30 bodies of 
Moslems were seen piled one on top of the other.   30 soldiers
have died from hunger and the cold on the island.  The sick
have no clothes or beds.  Most patients use brick parts as 
pillows and their bodies are covered with wounds from lying 
down.

                                      *     *     *

23.       The Berlin Military Ataşé sent the following report, dated 
February 1916, based on a statement from Dr. Carl Ausser, 
who is assigned to the Vienna Library:

In the course of two months, 60 Turkish officers and doctors 
died in the city of Achinsk (Stdhynsk).

                                       *     *     *

24.       Memorandum, dated March 1916, received from the Berlin 
embassy:

Ottoman prisoners in Russia are being treated very badly.  They
are beaten and treated with contempt by the Russians.

                                       *     *     *

25.        Telegram given to the National Agency in February 1917, 
based on the statement of an Austrian doctor who returned from
Russia:

The cruelties inflicted on Turkish prisoners  during their transport 
to Siberia  by the Russians are horrible.  Soldiers are dying from 
hunger.  The aforementioned doctor saw that in this frightful 
situation only 150 out of 2,000 prisoners survived.

                                      *     *    

26.   Memorandum received from the German Ministry of War:

There is no care provided to the Ottoman prisoners and sick in 
Russia.  In the city of Tomsk, out of 1,400 Ottoman prisoners 
only 300 have survived epidemic illnesses.

                                      *     *     *

27.   Memorandum dated July 1916, received from the Berlin 
Embassy: 

The sick prisoners held at Skotof Camp have been lying on 
boards for beds for over a year.  Instead of blankets, they were 
given sacks. The soldiers are given very bad food, smelly meat. 
At first, two soldiers were given one bread, but now it’s one 
bread for 5 soldiers. There are many sick among the Ottoman 
prisoners.  Out of 500 Turkish prisoners, 300 have died.

                                       *     *     *


28.   Received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attributed to 
news in the Feraya newspaper published in Poland:

Last winter in Samara, two train wagons full Turkish prisoners 
with typhoid fever were locked in the wagons continually for 
two weeks.  All the soldiers in the wagons froze to death.   In an 
effort to cover up the incident, the Russians burned all the bodies.

                                       *     *     *


29.   Report from the Third Army, attributed to the statement of 
Giresunlu Ali Oğlu Halil, who successfully escaped from Russia 
and who was a crew member of the ‘Üsküdar’ cargo boat, and 
of prisoner officers:

The shoes, sandals and boots of Moslem prisoners on Nargin 
Island were confiscated and they spent 4 months in bare feet.  
Their meals consisted of a funt ((12 ounces)) of bread and fish 
soup cooked in plain water.  Epidemic diseases like typhoid 
fever and thypus occurred because of the lack of food and 
inattention.  Consequently, the number of dead increased each 
day. Those officers who petitioned for a solution to this situation
 were transported deep into the country.   The prisoners 
experienced extreme pressure.  In particular, the Armenians 
and Greeks assigned to guard the prisoners insulted the 
prisoners excessively.

                                         *     *     *

 lake baikal map ile ilgili görsel sonucu
30.   Report, dated December 1917, of German Naval Officer 
Shenk, who was held prisoner in Russia but returned because 
of illness:

In July 1915, he was transported to Krasnoyarsk city, where 
there were epidemic diseases among the Ottoman officers.  
The officer orderlies in Nijni Udinsk ((Ulan Ude)) were 
transported to the city of Bereshov on the other side of Lake 
Baykal. The prisoners received no news from their families 
for three years. The Russian doctors did not look after the 
prisoners well.  About 50 ill Ottoman prisoners in Moscow 
were kept waiting and not exchanged.  An Ottoman soldier 
who was at death’s door spat on the floor while being carried 
and beaten to death by the enraged Russian hospital attendant. 
The Turkish doctors who tried to start an investigation were
barred from the hospital.    
           
                                           *     *     *

//END of PART V//



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