15 Mayıs 2019 Çarşamba

TNT Matchbox Diary: A Turkish POW in Russian Prison Camp (1915-1918)/Part LXII

//Ed. Note:  These mid-January 1917 days and nights are
all about Fuad Bey's relations with his fellow inmates.//  

stalag 17 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
                                Representative photo (!)


14 January 1917 Sunday
The weather is still cloudy. Not cold at all, though. The Greek 
government has announced its general neutrality, with the condition 
that it turn over all its weapons to England. Greek territory is now free. 
The armies of both sides will take the land they acquire up until the end 
of the war. Greek territory is now essentially in the hands of the English.

Another regrettable incident this evening. The bread issue was under 
discussion. In the evening Salah called everyone to the big room and 
said ‘single-grained bread is 15 kopes per funt. Whoever wants it can 
buy it. Those who don’t take back your money and go.’ Naturally, I 
had a stake in this and came out against it because Salah had said this. 
In addition, Salah’s attitude was very ostentatious. I really got annoyed. 
I said some things, including ‘why are you calling this single-grained? 
Everyone accepts this. Those who want  it, take it. Those who don’t, 
leave.  What kind of talk is this?’ Just then, another problem arose about 
another person joining us with those who were managing the bread issue. 
I wasn’t particularly involved in this. I always insist on the old system. 
Çerkes Mehmet was in our room at this time. In any event, all this noise 
didn’t  result in a fight. If Salah had wanted such a fight I would probably 
have helped the side I favored. The crude Salah gathered a bunch of 
brutes around him, seemingly relying on their support. But nothing 
happened.  Tonight for some reason passed quite nicely, instead of my 
being lost in deep thought.

15 January 1917 Monday
The weather is like yesterday. News: the Armenians are bothering 
everyone. They’re saying ‘we’re holding a grief day, a death holiday and 
are quite upset at being the victims of a calamity. In the morning I made
a decision for myself. My aim was to not open the way to any long 
adventure right now. Zühdü agreed to this. Later we spoke with Saffet. 
At this point , Salah asked me why I had suddenly come out against him. 
I said that his remarks were of concern to me. In response, he admitted 
that his words were intended for something else and that there was 
absolutely no connection with us. Anyway, I went over to the other 
house for a while and then returned. In the evening Zühdü said to me 
that he won’t get bread from here anymore. I thought about this. This
will make things difficult. If Zühdü leaves then we’ll be left in a tough 
situation. In any case, I asked not to do this and said that after this we 
would live together. We spoke again with Saffet on this subject at some 
length. Saffet brought Salah over and Salah assured Zühdü that his 
remarks had definitely not been directed at him. We talked with Zühdü 
about us moving to the big room. I told Saffet that ‘if Fahri and Hurşid 
come to our room then we’ll go to the other room.’ I added that if they 
didn’t want to come then we would remain in our old positions. That’s 
how today passed. I was angry that Zühdü’s friend of six or seven 
months, Burhan, abandoned Zühdü at a time like this and started to get 
into close contact with Salah’s partisans.

16 January 1917 Tuesday

The weather is overcast. Cold like it used to be. News: the Turks have 
split the Russian line in the Caucasus. The Russians left many dead and 
the wounded ran away. They’re worried that they’ll be eaten by wolves. 
In Bucharest the rulers and heirs to the thrones of the allied governments,
along with famous generals, will be gathered together. Enver Paşa will 
go, too…in the afternoon I went to the market. I bought two notebooks 
in order to make a diary and a package of tobacco. When I came back to 
the house Saffet came over to me and said a couple of things. He said that 
he liked me, that the matter would be solved somehow entirely as a favor 
to me, that he had always done what he could to support me and always 
would do so. In the end he added that it wold be possible to change rooms. 
I said that I felt the same way about him and that I felt badly about what I 
had said to him. Then I added that since Zühdü is my friend I would 
always help and defend him. He said that on his honor he didn’t know 
that Zühdü and I were friends and a few other hypocritical things. 
Anyway, we came to the house and we’ll move the beds. But they 
duped us by putting Burhan in Hurşid’s place. Fahri and Burhan came. 
We left. I found Burhan to be quite vile and unfeeling.  He showed 
meanness in abandoning his friend of six months, Zühdü, under Salah’s
influence. How vile are these fellows! Damn these Trabzon guys! If 
they’re all as lowdown as these, may God give them some good sense.

17 January 1917 Wednesday
The weather is like it has been. Some snow fell. We spoke with Şerif a 
bit in front of the door around noon. Saffet is nervous because I mostly 
go to Adlifinski so he asked Geveze (chatterbox) Ismail about my going 
to that house and to find out why and let him know. Anyway, lowdown
Saffet is doing a lot of things under the mask of being my fellow 
townsman. For sure, one day we’ll come face to face without the mask. 
Another regrettable incident in the evening: Salah and his pals deceived 
Hikmet. After the evening meal Hikmet came to the table on a pretext 
and since the table is common he gave the money equal to all the 
common shares and took the table. Using a meaningless little word as a 
pretext, he was going to fight with Mehmet Ağa. But I didn’t let this 
happen. At this point Süleyman  complained to Çerkes Mehmet. We 
were having a German lesson. Çerkes Mehmet and Süleyman came 
over. We took a break from our lesson. Süleyman was openly 
complaining and said that Salah has formed a committee. At this point, 
Salah and his group wanted to interrupt but Çerkes Mehmet left the 
matter until tomorrow…(after Salah had) deceived Hikmet about the 
?security? problem, Hikmet told Mustafa to defend him and when 
Mustafa didn’t agree to this, this time Salah tried to deceive Mustafa.  
Mustafa told Zühdü and Süleyman about this, and Süleyman complained. 
Kazim came from jail tonight. He and Saffet had a long talk. He hinted 
that we were always against him. Hikmet is a dirty fellow and he’s allied 
himself with men who curse their honor and their wives. What ridiculous 
ignominy!

18 January 1917 Thursday
The weather was nice until noon, then it got cloudy. Some snow fell 
toward evening. The cold is not so bad. After lunch Halis, Zühdü and 
I got permission from the ustarşi (Russian supervisor) and went to the 
other houses.  I went to Adlifinski and they went to Lebedof. The 
Lieutenant Colonel was coming to our house because Çerkes Mehmet 
told him about yesterday’s problem. We were interested in this matter 
too, so we came back. When the Lieutenant Colonel came to the house
we gathered around The Lieutenant Colonel began the inquiry. First, 
Süleyman spoke. Then Salah and Saffet started to speak. A number of 
other people offered their opinions. The matter was just about 
deadlocked. The Lieutenant Colonel said he didn’t have any time and 
wanted the sides to make peace immediately. He said we had to live 
without noise. At this point, Kazim claimed that Salah had said 
something behind his back and he told Salah to own up to this right 
away. But the Lieutenant Colonel  didn’t want to prolong the matter, 
told them to make up and left. Evening came. I was only mad at 
Mustafa about this. He had lied when the Lieutenant Colonel was here
although he had said that lowdown Hikmet was provoked by Salah’s 
friends and that he had joined in with them.  Because this was certain. 
In any event, things like this expose everyone’s truthfulness.
All the fellows assembled after the evening meal. Haydar Bey, Çerkes 
Mehmet and the doctor came to our room and we all drank tea. Then 
we all shook each other’s hand. Everyone made peace. We chatted. 
Then we were left by ourselves. Saffet and I explained a lot of things 
about our homeland. We again asked Süleyman to give us lessons. He 
agreed. We didn’t get to bed until two o’clock. 

//END of PART LXII//



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