in Fuad Bey's life in mid-November 1916 - the calm
before the storm.//
15 November 1916
Wednesday
The weather has
changed completely, it’s brand new. The sky is clear
and the sun is out. A
little before noon two of the
newly-arrived officer
prisoners came to our house. We chatted a bit. After
lunch we went to
the
market. The weather is cold, our mustaches froze. We got two
notebooks from the ?benşilme? and brought them back. At night
Franz
and I worked a bit but I had to go to bed rather early. There’s no
work,
nothing to do, not even sleep. My life passed grimly toward the end of
the day today.
16 November 1916
Thursday
Yet another gloomy
day of captive life. Yes, this gloomy new day makes
me think of the past, of the happy days I
once knew. Those magical
times are rocking my heart and soul. It gives my life such a great and
fun-filled abundance, it’s as if I was living those days once again in all
t
heir glory…I don’t know,
where has this hopeless situation come from?
It’s really unpleasant to deal
with the memories of the
past during these
days of captivity which can’t hide the calamities and
torments, to wrestle
with
ideas and dreams in such a place of torment. I’m hoping that if
something can
be found to keep me
busy during captivity I’ll be better
off…still, I don’t know! I don’t know! How
can it be that I’m
living my
life the best that I can but still I can’t be saved without some motivation,
no matter how much
I think about it. Still, I can’t escape from the
tremendous pain that crushes
my heart, rocks my
soul, and makes me
forget the thoughts in my mind and my dreams. Dear God…give strength
and
firmness to my spirit so that I’m not dragged to the abyss within these
enigmatic depths. I don’t
know, what’s in this new phase of life’s
passage? The weather is nice. I got
ready to go to the
Lebedof house
after lunch but unfortunately I couldn’t go. The reason was
Ethem. I
had an argument with
him just for this reason. We had another German
lesson. But it feels like my interest is slowly
fading away. I went to the
market toward evening. I was going to get a German reader but I came
back wth a scissors instead. We chatted at night…went to bed.
17 November 1916
Friday
The weather is
partly cloudy. Hasan Basri and a few other fellows from
the other house came to visit. I made
another request of Halis today.
First of all, I went over to him and asked him
to behave a little more
seriously, not to roughhouse with anyone and to absolutely not engage
in any
pushing and shoving
ourselves, in spite of our closeness. He
found this to be sensible but there
was a trace of sadness on his
face.
Later on he wanted an explanation from me so I told him that things
that seem unimportant
could be misunderstood or misinterpreted in our
environment and I mentioned some other things
too. At this point, Halis
became quite distraught. Again, my words were the cause. And yet I
had said them in the spirit of our friendship. Anyway, with some
difficulty I
was able to reassure
him but then it was me who felt badly.
Halis had tried to kill himself once
before. In fact, he had drank
cologne.
God help us! Has this child gone mad! Really, I was quite upset. It
was
all I could do to
console Halis. Then he said to me ‘if I don’t find my
family in Turkey would
you come with me to a
foreign country where
we could live? My real estate and land would fetch a pretty penny. It
would be enough for us.’ I agreed to this and told him to rest, adding
that I
would never abandon him.
We agreed and promised each other.
In fact, we wrote a note to this effect. Later Halis said
that he would do
his utmost to fulfill the request I made of him today. I was
happy and
relieved.
18 November 1916
Saturday
The weather is
overcast. The snow that falls now and then is
accumulating on the ground with
what’s already there. The cold is
affecting us inside the house.
This results mostly in the rooms being
damp, as follows: even
though the windows have two layers, ice forms
and melts. As a matter of fact,
the spot next to the
window has become
a lake. This is really annoying. It probably has quite an
effect on health,
too.
This is also mostly from breathing but somewhat from water vapor,
as well. News: our allies have
passed Dobruca and have entered Russian
Bessarabia. The Turks have defeated the English near
Nasiria, taking
60,000 prisoners. Two English planes have bombarded our army
head-
quarters…today
time passed pleasantly. I did a lot of German work and
we had another new
German lesson. We bought
an ordinary table for
two rubles and rearranged the beds to accommodate the table. I got a
little upset while this was going on because someone was interfering
with our
work. But I cut him off
with a couple of well-chosen words.
We chatted among ourselves and went to bed.
The Turks’ Attacks
in the Caucasus Have Come to Naught
19 November 1916
Sunday
The weather is
overcast. The ground is almost all covered by snow. Now
and then there’s some
snow falling. News: the
Turks’ attacks on the
Caucasus front (Kifi, Muş, Gümüşhane’s northwest) have
come to
naught.
Offensives on the other fronts are going better. Betman Holvek
said in a speech
that Russia cause the current
war and that England has
fanned the flames. SomeRussian writers are blaming the government.
Again
today an argument about the beds arose and I made Hakkı angry.
Because I got mad then too.
Sabbet came over to me in the evening and
we had a long talk. In summary, he
said that since we’re from
the same
town we have to always support each other. At night we chatted among
ourselves and went
to bed.
20 November 1916
Monday
The weather is
still cloudy. The cold is increasing significantly. Water
is freezing even
during daytime. Even the river
appears from a distance
to have frozen over. News: the Germans have invented a machine gun
that
weighs 24 funt (18 lbs.). They’re said to be having dogs find
important reports
and make small
discoveries. They’ve joined the Rhine
and Danube rivers by opening a canal,
linking the North Sea with the
Black Sea. Currently, the source of the Danube is in Russian hands…
some fellows came from the
other houses. Uzun Hakkı asked me to
write the German equivalents of a few Turkish words. I sent him
a paper.
We chatted among ourselves and went to bed.
21 November 1916
Tuesday
The weather is
overcast. Some light snow fell. News: a German
offensive. The French have
pulled back ten
kilometers. The Russians
have retreated a bit, as well. Likewise, the Italians.
The attack on
Romania continues.
Russian members of parliament want the cabinet
changed and an end to the war. We got an
order from the Russian
Command: no one will go to the market. If anyone goes their own
soldiers
and then any prisoner who goes will be executed. How severe!
We couldn’t understand it.
There had been an incident. As an Austrian
soldier was passing the market with
a guard a Russian
soldier who had
returned from the war flew into a rage and hit the Austrian a couple of
times.
Then the mujik (villagers) gathered and they were just about
ready to kill the Austrian. Finally,
the guard yelled to the Austrian ‘run,
save yourself!’ and the Austrian ran to safety at the main
barracks. We
wondered if this order was the result of this incident. We worked
a bit at night. We
had another new German lesson.
22 November 1916
Wednesday
The weather is
still cloudy. Again today there was another incident
caused by the Russians.
The problem arose as
follows: First Lieutenant
Sadık from the other house went to the market with a German
soldier-
servant in the morning. They went into the Tatar’s store. While
shopping, the German soldier
talked with a German civilian who asked
why they couldn’t go outside and the German soldier
related the
incident involving the Russians. The German civilian said that two
thirds of the
population of this province is made up of Germans and
that if the Russians were to attack the
prisoners they shouldn’t worry,
they would probably be helped and defended.
This conversation was
all
in German. Just then a few mujik (villagers) entered the store and asked
the Tatar’s child
why the Germans were allowed to talk like this. The
child told them to ask the guards who were
with the German. The mujik
were angered by this and attacked the Tatar’s child. Realizing
that the
situation would get worse, Sadık slipped away…what a scandal! The
Russians say they
don’t want war and then they attack us!
23 November 1916
Thursday
The weather
remains overcast. The cold is not bitter, though. After
lunch we went to the
Command. The issue: the
Kostruma governor has
sent an order, in which it is stated that the grocers and shopkeepers will ,
not give prisoners more provisions than have been allotted to them and
that any shopkeeper
that acts otherwise will be hit with a fine. It seems
they’re saying this so
the shopkeepers don’t
sell to us at wholesale
prices and then blame us for their problems…the incident that
occurred
was also mentioned. The Commander said that only the big market road
is off-limits and
that we could go to the other neighborhoods…we
worked a bit on German at night. Franz had
us write a short story in
German. The German tailor said that Bucharest has fallen and that
shortly all of Romania will be occupied.
24 November 1916 Friday
The weather is
still cloudy. Compared to other days, it’s not as cold.
News: Russian war
troops in Selanika have
taken Manastir. Romania is
still under pressure. The Russian Parliament has been closed
because ,
the government does not like the idea of the country making a peace
deal…yet another regrettable incident: Uzun Hakkı and Geveze
(chatterbox) Ismail from the other house came over.
Ismail related an
incident that had occurred at their house. In short, Sadık and Ismail
got
into an argument about reserves and regular army. Supposedly,
Kör (blind) Mehmet and Şerif
supported Sadık…enough of these
incidents!...big regret…at night we worked on our lessons and
after
chatting a bit we went to bed. The Russian newspapers are writing that
Austrian Emperor
Franz Joseph has died of natural causes.
25 November 1916
Saturday
Cloudy again.
Outside it’s reminiscent of our Fall days but it’s a bit
warm. The newspapers
are writing that the
Russian Parliament will
open. Again I heard an irritating, regrettable thing.
Şahir and Yahya i
n the
Malaşova house had a fight because of a backgammon game…
what a scandal! I worked with
Franz at night. We chatted…went to bed.
//END of PART LIV//
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