17 Mayıs 2019 Cuma

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

//Ed. Note: Fuad Bey gets news about the Romanian front,
where King Ferdinand, Russia's ally, has retreated to the 
eastern city of İasi, under pressure from Germany and its 
allies. The Russians have sent a train to take the King and
his treasures to Russia.

Meanwhile, the status of the Austrian and German privates 
who serve tea to Fuad Bey and his companions (!) is a hot
topic, as is the molestation of a German private in another
house by a Turkish Major (in bold below.)

Also, Fuad Bey had his 25th birthday on 21 January.//








19 January 1917 Friday
The weather is crystal clear. But it didn’t last long. Clouds came again 
in the evening. I wrote a letter to my father today and sent it. May God 
see it to its destination. Today the guard ustarşi, changed places with the 
Malaşova ustarşi. Again, today passed in idleness. We didn’t have a 
lesson. We wrote a telegram in hopes of getting news from Halis’s 
family in Erzincan. Toward evening the Commander signed it and sent 
it back.

The Romanians are Evacuating İasi

20 January 1917 Saturday
The weather is cloudy. Windy. There’s quite a dry cold. News: the 
Romanians are evacuating İasi. The German offensive on this front 
continues. The Romanian King will live in southern Russia. The 
Russian railroad company will provide ten wagons for the transport of 
the King’s palace. This train is en route to İasi. The Crimean Tercüman 
newspaper that we have a subscription for came in the evening. More
than news about the war, there were summaries of the sermons given 
in celebration of Mevlid-i Nebevi (Birth of the Prophet). These talk 
about a feeling of love toward Islam and its nations. They are publicly 
calling for victory for their religious brethren fighting in Anatolia. 
During the day we sent Halis’s telegram to the post office. A receipt for 
it came back a bit later. God willing, good news will come and the poor 
fellow will be happy. Tonight we got a new lesson from Süleyman. 
This was all about sentence construction.

21 January 1917 Sunday
The weather is nice, especially sunny at noontime. The cold is not too 
bad. We went for a walk in the afternoon. We made a tour and a half, 
passing by the beer factory, and then we came back. We didn’t get cold 
during the walk. We didn’t have a lesson tonight. We just had a 
discussion among ourselves. Today is my birthday. I finished my 
twenty-fifth year. Oh, what’s the use! I’m still in torment, in 
aggravation and thought. God give me happiness…

22 January 1917 Monday
The weather is still cloudy. Not very cold. I was aggravated again today. 
The prolongation of captivity, staying in the same place, seeing the 
same faces, make a person fed up. Dear God, give me a happy day. We 
had a lesson again tonight. Franz is teaching us these lessons. 
Süleyman promised to give us lessons but he’s doing so reluctantly. 
May God allow a person to not need another. Tonight we thought 
that by having Franz give us lessons during the day, as well, we 
could learn German in less time. We freed Franz from his tea duty 
in order to start to ensure free time for him to give us lessons. We 
gave his tea duty to Joseph and Joseph’s duty to someone else. So 
instead of Franz serving us tea he’ll give us lessons during that time.

23 January 1917 Tuesday
The weather is overcast. It’s rather cold. There was light snow, too. 
Tercüman came again. Kör Mehmet and Geveze İsmail came to our 
house in the morning. They brought new and regrettable news. There 
was another incident of attempted sodomy in the Lieutenant Colonels'
house (Lebedof).  As a result there was a fight. Once again, Major 
Murat Bey attacked (molested) an Austrian soldier.  How shameful! 
What a hateful thing! And a major, no less…that soldier will got back 
to his country and spread bad ideas about Turks…even if it’s not true 
the gossip is very grave. The soldier(said to be a German soldier) who 
suffered the attack, escaped to the Kazarma (main barracks). We had a 
lesson in the afternoon and at night. We couldn’t take full advantage, 
though, because we know there’s a shortcoming. We’re still on the 
subject of a clause. Süleyman is halfhearted about it anyway…

24 January 1917 Wednesday
The weather is nice. Essentially cloudless. The cold has increased. 
The sun warms a person well inside the room.  I gave the ustarşi the 
letter I wrote last night to my father. May God send this and bring a 
response. I’m very worried. It’s been ten months. In fact, a year has 
passed and I haven’t gotten any news. Two days of Tercüman 
newspaper came. We went for a walk in the afternoon. Again, we 
walked around where the factory is. The cold made me shiver. We 
had a lesson in the afternoon and at night. During noontime we write 
sentences. At night we spend our time learning lots and lots of words.

25 January 1917 Thursday
The weather is clear. Sunny. But it’s much colder than it has been before. 
In the morning the thermometer showed 28 degrees below zero. One 
cannot stay outside for long. Tercüman came again today. In it there 
were copies of the notes that Germany and Austria have given again to
the neutral countries and to their enemies. They say quite a bit about 
themselves and their allies. In particular, the enemies say this bout the 
Turks: ‘they should throw the Turks out of Europe, the Russians should 
take Istanbul, freedom should be given to all the other nations within 
Turkey and they should be saved from the Turkish grasp henceforth.’ 
In response: ‘if theTurks leave Europe and if Istanbul is taken from the 
Turks, not just Europe’s but the entire world’s equilibrium will be upset. 
Our enemies ar especially eager to grant rights to the foreign nationalities 
in Turkey, but there are Moslems, Turks and Tatars in Russia that have 
been deprived of just about all their rights and the same is true in India, 
in Africa. In short, there are such nationalities in our enemies’ countries 
and colonies. Why is it that they’re not thinking about the rights of more 
than one hundred million people, while they protect the one or two 
million foreigners in Turkey?’ At the conclusion, it says that the 
continuation of  the war is entirely the responsibility of the Allied Powers. 
We had a lesson from Franz today.  Everyone is still talking about how 
the great shamefulness that took place in the other house could have 
happened.  Really, I feel very badly about it.

//END of PART LXIII//


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