normal routine of buying bread and studying German, Fuad
Bey talks of becoming an electrical engineer - the profession
he and his son Yılmaz would ultimately work in with great
success.//
Fuad Bey's book on long-distance telephone
circuits, published in the 1930s.
Year 1333- 1917
Start of the New
Year the Turkish Government Recently Agreed to
Observe
1 January 1917
Monday
The weather is
bad. The snow outside is two handlengths high. Snow is
falling now and then. In the early
afternoon we went outside and walked
up to the beer factories on the right-hand
side of the city. We
came back
via Lebedof. My feet got cold. We spent theday writing German and we
had a lesson at
night, too. We were going to get flour to bake bread
tomorrow but the stores wouldn’t give us
any. Even though it shows on
our food-ration
card that we’re to be given one and a half funt
(funt =
12 oz./409.5 gram) of flour per person they gave us a hard time by
demanding a permit. What
inhumane jerks they are! They’re lowdown
men! These numerous, disjointed
actions have engendered
such a hunger
for revenge in me that I’ll do whatever harm I can to the
Russians from
now on.
Because they say and write that the Turks are their centuries-old
enemy and
they proclaim the fall
of Istanbul to be their greatest desire.
Friendship with them would be an
eternal wrong.
2 January 1917
Tuesday
The weather is still
bad. The cold is getting ever harsher. The snow
exceeds two hand-lengths. After lunch we
went to the kazarma (main
barracks) and
got the 50 rubles appropriated for each of us. Up to now
I’ve gotten 540.5 rubles frm the Russian government. Upon return we
paid the requisite money
for table d’hote and other things. News: the
Russian Koyesledof wrote, in what seemed to be a
mocking tone, about
the Turks wanting Egypt, Tripoli, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and the
Caucasus.
Today while we were getting our salaries we spoke with the
four Turkish
soldiers who were taken
prisoner on the Galicia b order.
One was a student at Galatasaray. They had been at Çanakkale and
they
said that there were few battles as violent as Çanakkale anywhere in the
world, let alone
in Galicia. They had gone to Galicia as a battalion army.
They said there’s one
of our army corps on
the Romanian front, too. Poor
Istanbul is getting very expensive, they said. We worked on our
lessons at
night. Today we had to buy the bread from the market. White bread has
jumped
to 20 kopeks per funt.
3 January 1917
Wednesday
The weather is
like it has been. Rather cold, too. We got bread from
outside again. We got the middle one again.
This time it was cooked
very poorly, the color was jet black, it was like
dough. I got annoyed
about something tonight. The reason and the problem: in the evening I
asked Burhan for a
photograph he had taken as a memento of friendship.
I wanted this gesture of mine to serve
as more or less a rememberance
and I was
expecting this as a sign of our friendship.
Unfortunately, I
was confronted with an unforeseen reply. I felt very badly.
But Halis
consoled me and
soothed my discomfort with some nice words. We
didn’t have a lesson tonight. Uzun
Hakkı sent us a German book. We
finished writing the newspaper today and it was read. The
humorous
section was very funny.
4 January 1917
Thursday
The weather is the
same. There’s cold , too. We went to the bath before
noon. We got a good scrubbing. But this time we didn’t get so tired out.
When we returned we drank a lot of tea. We ate our food, as
well. The
charge for the bath is 75 kopeks. The baths here have a system like
everywhere else
we’ve seen. News: one of the ministers who is on the
government side and a member of the
palace was killed by the people
because he was in favor of war. His body was thrown under the
ice of
the Neva River. No one knows what happened to the body. These
incidents are
happening in St. Petersburg and a Russian newspaper is
writing about them. While we were at the
bath Çerkes Mehmet and
Major Haydar Bey had an argument. Haydar Bey used nice, severe
language in giving Çerkes a dressing down. The reason for the
argument was a remark about Major
Mehmet Bey of the other house
moving to this house. We didn’t have a lesson today.
5 January 1917
Friday
Cloudy again
today. Bitter cold, too. News: Russian troops have
withdrawn to their own lands after the Germans occupied Tolçu and
Isakçı. I
didn’t work at all today, I loafed. I passed the time by making
chits. At night I wrote random chits for each one of the Turkish letters.
We
had a lesson from
Franz at night but it wasn’t productive. We each
gave Franz one ruble. The
German and Austrian
committees are about
to cut off their relations with Vetluga. Although we tried
to get flour,
beans
and other things from there, it didn’t happen. In any event, it’s
impossible to do anything in
Russia as a prisoner.
6 January1917
Saturday
The weather is
maintaining the status quo…we were able to get three
sacks of flour from the market today and
thanks to Osman Bey in the
other house we were able to procure four more sacks of flour
from the
committee, with the permission of the Commander. Still, we bought
today’s and
tomorrow’s bread from the market. It was 20 kopeks per
funt. We didn’t have a lesson at night. I
didn’t learn one work of German
today because there’s lots of aggravation. At night, Zühdü
told me about
his goal for the future and that he would like to work together with me in
some
way. Like this: in the future a school will be formed under the name
‘open air school’. The
founder is Zühdü. By this time I will have
completed my education and will be an electrical
engineer. I’ll teach
young people of the nation about science at this school.
Later this will be
wonderful. I’ll build an electric factory there and I’ll train many
electricians –
novices and experts – for
the nation. In this way, we’ll live
a happy, pleasant life after having
fulfilled our desire. In a
dream tonight
I saw a calamity befalling my friend Halis, whom I love like my soul. I
felt very badly. In fact, I cried.
7 January 1917
Sunday
The weather has
opened up a bit. Now and then the sun peeks through.
It’s not as cold as it has been. News:
German and allied troops have
seized the cities of Irail and Ismail on the Russian border.
The attack
continues. In the evening we studied German but, what’s the use,
without a
teacher it’s impossible to get anything
worthwhile out of it.
Again today, I asked Süleyman Efendi to
teach us. He said it would
have to be delayed for a while.
//END of PART LX//
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