news about the War, including reports of the Germans
bombing London with Zeplins. Language lessons and
inmate relations dominate Fuad Bey's life.//
22 October 1916
Sunday
The weather is
partly cloudy. The sun is showing itself, giving us some
color…the Commander
came in the morning. We
talked about Major
Haydar coming here from the other side. At this point Çerkes Mehmet
said that
an officer had come to him saying that he had no money for
tobacco and he
wanted an advance. This
moneyless fellow was Kazim.
The Commander took three rubles from his pocket and gave them to
him.
This made me mad. Kazim doesn’t pay any money for table d’hote
and he’s deep in debt. He can’t
bear to be without money so he’s forever
asking everyone to borrow money. May God make him wise
and shape
him up. Toward evening I again asked Süleyman to give us German
lessons. He
agreed. Really, I’m mad because we’re sitting idle. I got
angry at another
thing today. Salah and Saffet chatted
with each other
from morning till midnight. They keep on whispering. They’re
not
talking about home
or the war because they’ve used up everything they
know about them. The strange thing is they’re
talking about who they’re
against and who they’re for. I’m sick of it! Let’s be
human! Even if we
don’t
do good deeds let’s at least work. Damn these trouble-makers!
23 October 1916
Monday
Like yesterday the
weather today is nice. A bit chilly. Another problem:
Haydar will come from the Other side so
someone from here will
change places with him. Salah was going to be sent over
there but
Çerkes Mehmet
intervened to forestall Salah’s leaving even though the
Russian ustarşi (supervisor) had insisted on
it. The result was that
everyone appealed to Çerkes Mehmet and the ustarşi and
Salah
stayed. I wanted
him to leave. The Russian ustarşi said to Salah
‘you don’t seem to be a friend,
you have a plan. I
know a person from
his actions, not his words. You’re talking in secret every
night.’ Salah
got very angry and
gloomy. Halis took the boots to the main barracks
today. He didn’t have enough money by one
ruble. He was embarrassed
and said he would bring it tomorrow. The boots really
look great, like
new.
At night Halis, Burhan and I started to get German lessons from
Süleyman again.
I wrote two cards
today, one to my father and the
other to Ziya who is in Çohlama. I gave them to
the Russian ustarşi.
24 October 1916
Tuesday
The weather is
more overcast than yesterday. There’s a dry cold in the
air. News: the Germans
are using the 42 against the
Romanians, who
are under heavy pressure! The hope is that Romania will be completely
destroyed soon. Supposedly all civilian prisoners are being set free for
return
to their home countries. I
wonder if it’s true? I was gloomy today
because Zühdü gave away a match and
Burhan said something
thoughtless. Then Halis came and said ‘you’re always in a bad mood.
This seems
to have happened
after you and I became close friends.’ At
night he said something meaningless
about the two covers of
a book and
added that he would share the details in the morning. I didn’t
understand.
Really, I felt
rather strange. Right away my mood changed. Mostly, I feel
badly about even the slightest thing. But perhaps I’m not justified. It’s
not good for Halis to tease me like this but it’s no big deal. We’re
really
eternal friends…we didn’t have a German lesson for lack of a table. I
felt
badly about this.
25 October 1916
Wednesday
The weather is
nice, cloudless, pleasant. It’s warmed up. In the afternoon
everyone went to
walk around in the garden and the park by the river.
Unfortunately, I was late so I couldn’t go. All I could do was walk
a bit
in front of the door. I busied myself today with sewing a cloth slipper
and
I worked on German
a bit too. At night we had a new German lesson.
Halis has been in an odd mood for the past
couple of days. He can’t sleep
at night. Whenever I wake up at night I see him smoking a
cigarette. I
ask ‘what are you thinking?’ but he doesn’t respond. Sometimes he
says
it’s just
sleeplessness. May God grant him health. Seeing my best friend
under such
stress makes me extremely
upset.
26 October 1916
Thursday
The weather is
pleasant like yesterday. We strolled around in front of the
door quite a bit.
We had another lesson
with Süleyman at night (about
irregular verbs). At night Saffet told us the
story of the novel Kantoma.
Again, the trials born of captivity. No word from my parents.
27 October 1916
Friday
The weather is
rather nice again. There are some clouds and some rather
cool air. Vetluga is
northeast of Moscow at a
latitude of 5758 degrees.
It’s a district and the province is Kostroma. It’s on
the right bank of the
river,
which has a current on the right side. There are no mountains here,
just a
plain. On the left bank
there are wetlands and ponds. The land is
more like fine sand than dirt. We had
a new German lesson. We
chatted
and went to bed.
28 October 1916
Saturday
The weather is
quite nice. Sunny. News: the Germans are on the attack
and the French and
Russians are in retreat.
The Russians say that they
can’t hold the line because they’ve used too much of
their ammunition.
The
zepplins have bombed London, destroying a pier on the Thames.
Austria is pressing Italy,
which is fleeing. Romania is being pressed by
German, Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish forces.
Very good. There are
lots of forests in Vetluga. The land is two thirds forest
and one
third grassland. Apples, cucumbers, beets, oats and rye are
grown.
Wheat and watermellons come from elsewhere.
Forces from the
Carpathians Have Split the Boğdan-Eflak Border
29 October 1916
Sunday
The weather is nice.
We didn’t have a German lesson today on the
pretext of practice. News: our army has taken
Lepez district in Van. We
and our allies are squeezing Romania. They’ve crossed the Danube at
Dobruca. Köstence and Mecidiye have fallen. A force from the
Carpathians has
split the Boğdan-Eflak
border. Two armies are joining
together. Eflak is completely surrounded. The Russian newspaper
says
‘we were expecting something from Romania but they’ve put us and our
friends (our left
flank) in danger. The Russian newspapers are also saying
‘we were threatening the Germans with
starvation but they’re not scared
of hunger. On the contrary, although we can’t export anything,
we’re
dying of hunger…’
30 October 1916
Monday
The weather is
neither good nor bad. These days we’re suffering from
a lack of money. I don’t know, is it
because we’re not managing it
properly? It’s as if the destitution we
experienced at Sarıkamış has
returned, come back to life. We have enough tea chits but there’s no
cigarette paper. We’re in a
bad way. Everything is finished and there’s
still ten day until we get paid.
Being without cigarettes
is bewildering.
We’re too embarrassed to ask anyone for them and we won’t lower
ourselves to
do so. We got some mahurka for a few (40,50) kopeks
and are trying to use it to remedy our
need for cigarettes. Mahurka
come from the roots of tobacco. By adding wood chips we’re making
do. We got 40 kopeks from Zühdü today. We had a new German lesson
(case endings for
verbs) today. We chatted and went to bed.
31 October 1916
Tuesday
The weather is
like yesterday. The foul smell from the latrine sewers
which were cleaned
yesterday kept us from going
outside. Very
uncomfortable. The outside smells terrible. News: the Russians
have destroyed the
Danube Bridge with cannon fire. We’re advancing
at Dobruca. The main line from Köstence to
Europe has been seized.
Turkey, Istanbul are in tumult. Enver Paşa and Talat
are feuding. Enver
Paşa has dispersed the Committee of Union and Proress forces loyal to
Talat and closed their
clubs. When this happened they formed a
committee with Prime Minister Said
Halim Paşa as the chief,
Talat as
the deputy chief and Midhat Şükrü and some others as members. They
declared a
dictatorship and protested Enver Paşa. We didn’t believe it.
God willing,
there’s nothing to it,
especially at a time like this. We
didn’t have a lesson tonight. From now on
lesson time has been
shifted to three o’clock in the afternoon. Today I had the Austrian
servant
Franz write some things
in French. We chatted and went to bed.
//END of PART LI//
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