ends. Nevertheless, 2 Austrian POW soldiers are sent
to Fuad Bey's house as servants (!) for the officer POWs
there. An Arab Ottoman captain causes an uproar in the
house, too.//
A Russian Orthodox church in Vetluga.
21 June 1916 Wednesday
After morning tea, I worked on completing
the family history that I
couldn’t finish at Sarıkamış. We played games a bit and chatted. We
heard
that in the afternoon we would go to the Command and get some
money as an advance. Our salaries
will be given to us on Friday. After
lunch we went to the Command, our names were read off and they
gave everyone an account receipt with our names on it. Then they took
it back. They did some
other things we didn’t understand. Then they
calculated the 60 rubles we got as three salaries at Sarıkamış and
although
this was really 50 rubles they cut 30 rubles from us saying it
was extra. So,
in short, we went empty handed and left the same way.
We’re being very badly affected by the lack
of money. Since we
didn’t have any evening bread, we borrowed from someone and ate.
22 June 1916 Thursday
The weather is somewhat overcast. It rained
a bit too. We heard
something today that really irritated us. This is it: one of the
married
officers, secretary Şakir, petitioned the Command for permission to
speak with his family. In
order to get his petition accepted he bragged
about providing his utmost services to the
Russians in Erzurum
(seeming to mean spying). When we heard this we were outraged and
wrote a
note to be given to the committee. In the note we demanded
that he be expelled or punished.
Everyone signed it except Tahir for
some reason. After signing, it was given to the head of
the committee,
Osman. In the evening the Commander came. He thanked us for the
calmness our
group had shown by wisely avoiding some unnecessary
actions and he rebuked the other senior
group by implication. He gave
permission for the children of the married fellows to come to see their
fathers.
23 June 1916 Friday
The weather is bad again today and
continued that way until late
afternoon. We went to the Command before lunch to get salaries. After
they made some calculations they took 54 rubles from those who had
received three salaries
at Sarıkamış and 45 rubles from those who had
gotten two, for table d’hote and other things.
They cut these debts in
one fell swoop.
So although we had hoped to get a salary, we each
had to give
four rubles extra. Again we’re broke. Upon returning home
we were able to find bread money by
borrowing from here and there.
Had I not found any money I would have gone hungry. We got two
more servants in our house today. They’re Austrians. One Austrian,
one Hungarian.
24 June 1916 Saturday
The weather is nice, clear. In the
afternoon nine of us went outside for a
walk. We watched the Vetluga River shore intently and sat on a
somewhat high ridge. There was greenery on all sides. We passed by the
public garden (park),
which is a simple place but it has a good view of
the plain. There are no flowers here, just trees, grass, fixed chairs and
plane trees. I
passed the time in the house, sometimes with games and
sometimes with gymnastics. I also learned the game ‘King and Minister’.
25 June 1916 Sunday
The trials of captivity. I’ve been
separated from my family for a long
time. I wonder whether they’ve gotten my letters and I reflect on
my
situation and the future. Sometimes I’m sad and sometimes I’m
consoled.
The Vetluga River
26 June 1916 Monday
The weather is gloomy but there’s no rain. A light breeze spreads a
sweet coolness. Today passed with chatting and game-playing. As
the result of yesterday’s application, we each got a three-ruble
advance. I gave two of these
for table d’hote and one to pay a debt.
I’m broke again. The amount of time we’re allowed to
walk around
in the evenings has been increased from one and a half hours to three
hours. A
nice Russian gesture.
News: Erzurum has passed to us. We hopt to God that this is true and
rejoice. We sat around quite a while at night. After everyone had gone
to sleep I talked a lot
with my bedmate Nuri. We talked about Turkey,
progress and the future. We went to bed as
the sun was rising.
"Şah Mat" ("Checkmate" - playing chess)
27 June 1916 Tuesday
The weather is cloudy. Toward evening it
rained heavily. I wrote
another letter in French to my father
today concerning my health. Dear
God , let them learn about my health
and I about theirs because I’m
worried. Of course who
knows what they may be thinking. In the
afternoon Şerif came and we worked on Russian a bit.
Then we
passed the time with games and chatting. I played chess and I learned
a lot. I won
right away because of the mistakes that newcomers
make. Today another terrible thing: from
now on getting oil and eggs
from the market is forbidden. The cause of this unreasonable
thing is
the impertinence of a sergeant in the Command. This sergeant is one
of the noteables
around here…damn it!...dirty rascals.
28 June 1916 Wednesday
The weather is still cloudy. Late in the
afternoon there was some
drizzle. I passed the time playing games and chatting. Also, I’m
thinking
about my parents a lot because I’m the one hope for those
poor people. They haven’t had joy and
happiness up to now and now
they have no news from me. Who knows how they must be worrying.
Dear
God, let at least one of the letters I’ve written reach Them and
free them from worry. This is my
wish.
Halis and I mended fences tonight. I proved to him the problem that
had come up against him
was completely unintentional. He accepted
this.
Ottoman Turkish and Arab soldiers on the Sinai front in
Egypt.
29 June 1916 Thursday
The weather is still cloudy with occasional
drizzle. Today there was a
big outrage and the reason was that Captain Hamid ripped up the
netting
protecting us from the mosquitoes, on the pretext that it was shabby
and ill-cared for. He
threw it on the floor in an insulting manner, looking
at our faces with a hateful look. With the aim of
defending us, Salah
asked him politely why he had ripped up the netting. The situation got
worse and
the rascal was seething. He began to dress us down in a
very judgemental fashion. In the evening
the committee met and the
matter was presented to everyone. It was clear that Hamid was in
the
wrong but when it came time for him to apologize he blindly refused.
Finally he said that he
didn’t recognize the committee and that he
didn’t trust anyone. In fact, the mannerless rascal had
the nerve to
insult us by saying ‘you’re disregarding your own consciences and
lying.’ We protested
this and the meeting broke up. This man is an
Arab anyhow. It’s impossible for Arabs to mix with Turks
because
of their bad ways. Damn such rascals!
News: the Turkish army has crossed the Russian border
and seized
two important positions or cities.
//Ed. Note: From another Ottoman-language source of
37 reports about Turkish POWs in Russia, this Captain
Hamid wrote an undated letter, describing his situation at
Vetluga:
"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."//
30 June 1916 Friday
The weather is nice. We gathered again at
night and decided
unanimously that Arab Captain Hamid must leave us because it
wouldn’t be
possible (as the result of yesterday’s incident) for him to
live with us anymore.
News: on
the Riga front, the Germans have taken an aggressive
posture. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to
measure the duration of the
night accurately. The shortest night is about five and a half
hours
from sunset to sunrise. At this time there’s no other star visible in
the sky other than
the shepher’s star that rises toward morning. I
gave myself a haircut. Zühdü’s obstinacy left my
mustache in a
mess.
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