23 Mart 2019 Cumartesi

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


hasankale haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu
         Italian (?) map of the Caucasus Front in late 1914.

9.       The report of Sabri Efendi, 9th Army Corps/ 28th Division/ 
87th Regiment/ 1st Battalion/8th Company, who was taken 
prisoner near Hasankale on 24 January 1915:

As soon as we were taken prisoner the Russians seized all our 
belongings.  On 12 February we were transported toward 
Hasankale with 350 soldiers.  Since the troops were hungry and 
worn out, they didn’t have the strength to march.  The Russian 
guards killed our innocent soldiers.  They put those that survived
inside four walls with no shirts.  Six soldiers froze to death.  
The next day we marched toward Sarıkamış and in the evening
we came to Karaurgan.  Again, the Russians killed 80 our 
soldiers along the road.  This 15-day trek was made in hunger. 

Up to Sarıkamış, the Russian and Armenian soldiers cursed and 
swore at us.  From Sarıkamış, the officers went by train to Baku, 
suffering abuse from the populace along the way.  En route they 
gave officers 1.5 rubles and commanders 3 rubles, as they sent 
us to Nargin Island.  There were 6,000 of our prisoners on the 
island.  Here, the officers got 50 rubles per month and we weren’t 
allowed to leave our shacks for 6 months.  After that, we were 
permitted to go outside with a guard.  Subsequently, we were 
transported to Zih Island, where our conditions were even 
more horrible.  From there 102 of us officers went to Moscow, 
Şarya and finally to the town of Nikolsk.  Along the way we 
were jeered by the populace and the money we got wasn’t even 
enough for bread.  It was next to impossible to get any news from 
Turkey.  The housing and food for our soldiers was quite bad, as 
the Russians took every opportunity to rob our soldiers  


                                        *     *     *

taken prisoner click here for a first-hand account of a
battle near Kelkit in July 1916.


10.       The report of the 13th Division Mobile Hospital Head 
Doctor Osman Bey, who was taken prisoner around Kelkit in 
July 1916:

When I was taken prisoner, the Russians took my clothes, cash 
and all my vauables.  In fact, some officers marched all the way 
to Bayburt shoeless.  Even though complaints were lodged with 
the Cossack regimental command about the Cossacks who were 
robbing the prisoners,  we were threatened with death and had to 
keep quiet.  There’s was no care at all for our soldiers’ food and 
medical treatment.  We had to lie down in the hospital with flea-
ridden blankets, covered with typhus microbes.  In fact, our 
soldiers on watch duty were made to wrap themselves in  these 
very blankets by the hospital’s head doctor.  The number of our
prisoners who died at Hamamlı prison camp, near Sarıkamış, 
was about 30,000.  From the 50 rubles given monthly by the 
Russians, 35 rubles were deducted for officers’ meal money and
the remainder was all that was left for the rest of our needs.  
Both the soldiers and officers were in a very wretched condition.
One of the doctors from the Swedish Red Cross, Mr. Lindkolm,
saw this filth and was quite disturbed by it.  He said that he sent
a report to the government official in charge.  The conditions for
our prisoners on Nargin Island were horrible.
                                                                   
                                                *     *     *

11.       Letter from First Lieutenant  Mehmed Salih Efendi of the 
57th Regiment 4th Battalion 1st Company, a prisoner in Russia:

The Russian soldiers seized all of my valuables.  Although 
prisoners from the armies of the Allies were transported by 
railroad, 21 Ottoman officers had to march on foot to Bucaca.  
During the trip we slept on wooden boards and stayed in 
soldiers’ barracks.

                                      *     *     *

//Ed. Note: This Captain Bağdatlı Hamid Hakkı
was with Fuad Tokad in Vetluga prison camp.
See TNT Matchbox Diary for collateral info.


12.   Letter sent by Artillery Captain Bağdatlı Hamid Hakkı 
Efendi, a prisoner in Russia:

The commander of the Vetluga command in the district of 
Kostroma would not give prisoners their letters.  We were 
held in inhumane conditions and under duress.  Even though 
we received a salary of 50 rubles, the value dropped to 2 
kuruş.  Purchase of officer prisoners’ food was taken care of 
by the guards so a third of our salaries went to the guards.  
Petitions sent to the commander were ripped up and thrown 
away.

                                  *     *     *      

13.       Report of First Lieutenant Osman Nuri Efendi of the 100th 
Regiment 2nd Battalion 5th Company who was taken prisoner in 
Bitlis but returned in a prisoner exchange:

During the transport of sick prisoners to Chohloma and upon 
arrival at Tbilisi they lay on wooden beds and use very old and 
dirty pillows.  Nevertheless, the Russian doctors did not treat the 
sick prisoners badly.               
                                                    
                                 *     *     *

türk esirleri rusya haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu

14.    Report of Captain Mehmed Zeki Efendi, Commander of the 
1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the 63rd Regiment of the 
15th Division, who returned by escaping while a prisoner in 
Russia:

From the day our prisoners were captured the officers were made 
to march for 8 days although there were all sorts of other means 
of transportation available, during the 1.5 month transit to the 
town of Chorinar.  Subsequently, transport was by animal carts 
obtained from villages for 9 days, followed by movement in 
railroad boxcars made for animals.  En route to the city of Tisa, 
on the pretext that there was illness about, 500 of our prisoners 
were transported with just undershorts and a shirt.  Because of 
the harsh winter weather only one soldier survived and the rest
died.  Without exception, all of our captive officers were forced
to salute even Russian officer candidates.  During transport in 
-22.5 degree weather from Chorinar to Astrahan over 8 days the 
soldier prisoners walked on foot.  And although they 
subsequently boarded trains the feet of most of them froze.

                                         

                                         *     *     *


15.   Information from the Stockholm intelligence office attributed 
to the statement of the German Schuster , who returned from 
Russia, in April 1917:

The Russians set up a large prisoners barracks in a place they 
chose for an agriculture exhibition in Siberia.  Here, the Ottoman
prisoners were subjected to poor treatment and even the most 
urgent needs of the prisoners were not addressed.  As the result 
of typhus fever  that swept through among the Ottoman prisoners 
in the Fall, hundreds of them died. The sick prisoners were denied 
even the most basic treatment.  The bodies of the dead were not 
buried but, rather, stuffed into sacks and thrown away outside the 
city.
                                       *     *     *         

16.       Report received from the military attaché in Berlin, 
attributed to the statment of the German Schuster, who returned
from Russia:


The Ottoman prisoners held at Noriyevski were naked and this 
was very difficult to look at.  They were not permitted to obtain 
their needs from the outside.

                                        *     *     *


//END of PART IV//


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