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.
* *
*
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.
* *
*
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.
* * *
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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