31 Mayıs 2019 Cuma

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

//Ed. Note: Fuad Bey had a close call with his diary when
the Russians came to seize all foreign-language books held
by the POWs (in bold below). Its tiny size no doubt allowed 
Fuad Bey to hide it fairly easily.//

kibrit kutusundaki sarıkamış-sibirya günlükleri ile ilgili görsel sonucu

26 February 1917 Monday
The weather was clear until noon, then it clouded up. It was bitter cold 
in the morning again. My soul-suffering has increased today. On one 
hand, I’m thinking about myself and I see that I’m rolling around within 
a deep unknown. On the other hand, I’m thinking about my parents and
my brother and becoming convinced that hope of reuniting with them 
alive is diminishing. The war goes on, with no peace in sight. The 
uncertainty is so dense that there’s no chance of solving it. Nevertheless, 
captivity and the sorrows and torments it brings are separate. When all 
of these aggravations are brought together bearing up is just about 
impossible. Really, I’m fed up with everything anymore. Even my time 
is lost in thought and my sleep passes amidst torment. I want to work 
on and learn German but this can’t be done in deprivation. I don’t know 
what I’ll do . My perception and thoughts are escaping from me. Dear 
God, give me happiness…henceforth things are changing, the nights 
aren’t that long…again, we didn’t have a lesson. The day was wasted.
Today we had sugarless fried dough instead of table d’hote. It was good. 
At night I made Halis a bit mad again.

Wilson is Avoiding War


27 February 1917 Tuesday
The weather is clear, nice. The cold is considerable. In the morning the 
Feldfebel (sergeant-major) and the Commander sent word that they 
would inspect us. The reason: if there are foreign language 
books they will determine whether they are appropriate or 
inappropriate. If appropriate they will be returned but if 
not they will be held at the Kazarma (main barracks) until 
peace or until we are transferred to another place. The 
Commander didn’t come. Based on his second message, 
the ustarşi (Russian supervisor) took the books that were 
here.  Fortunately, he didn’t find the notebooks (diaries).

News: (Tercüman) the problem of whether or not America will fight a 
war with Germany is still being written about. Wilson is avoiding war. 
But the Allied Powers are hoping for help. I was somewhat irritated 
today. This was exacerbated a bit by my making Halis mad. My 
discomfort is all because of Saffet. In any event, none of us has been 
comfortable for the past couple of days. The season is winter and it’s 
cold. The air inside the rooms is hardly recycled at all. The stove 
doesn’t warm the rooms. The blankets are insufficient for warding off 
the cold. The temperature in the room is only plus five degrees. We 
didn’t have a lesson at night. Today I couldn’t even work on one letter.

28 February 1917 Wednesday
The weather is clear. It’s cold like it has been, bitter. News: the English 
escaping from Mesopotamia are pulling back to the east of Katra. This 
means that the enemy is without hope. The Germans have raised the 
number of sunken ships to 190 in two weeks. Turkey has appointed 
someone named Nazim Bey to the Foreign Ministry. My illness went 
away today. Halis and I talked at length today. We got rid of the 
conflicts in our ideas and came to an understanding. We agreed to not 
let such conflicts arise anymore. There’s no doubt that these conflicts 
of ideas are the consequence of the torments brought on by captivity. 
Damn captivity!


1 March 1917 Thursday
The weather is clear but it clouded up somewhat in the afternoon. 
The cold is not as bad as it has been in the last few days.  News: 
in Petrograd, the Foreign Minister has asked the leaders of the workers
committee whether or not it is true that the workers have already made
 a decision to demonstrate for the overthrow of the current government 
and the establishment of a democratic republic when the Duma opens 
on 14 February (27 February, according to the modern calendar). He
also said that a commission would take an initiative to investigate this. 
The committee chief said that there would be no such thing and he 
added that they had no right or power to conduct such an investigation
…when one looks at the things that are happening within Russia and in 
its cities it seems that there is rebellion all over. The reason for this 
must be starvation because the newspapers are full of such stories 
every day…again, I wasn’t able to work on anything. I’m bewildered 
these days. I have no appetite. There’s a mild aching in my body and 
I’m shaking a bit in the house. We chatted at night, all about 
agriculture. Finally, it stopped at beekeeping. Everyone talked about 
what they knew on this subject…we listened attentively.

2 March 1917 Friday
The weather is clear. It’s not so cold and the bitter cold is no more. 
Here are the current prices for provisions here: bread 30, meat 60, 
rice, milk 55, macaroni 35 (these prices are all per funt). One egg is 
12 kopeks. Supposedly, according to regulations, the municipality will 
only give on pud of flour per person per month. We sort of had a lesson 
tonight. I couldn’t write or work. But a very regrettable thing happened. 
While I was absent-mindedly speaking German and practicing, our time
went a bit over and the doctor said to the servants ‘go, go to bed!’ A bit
after we stopped the lesson.  The doctor’s giving such an order all of a 
sudden was nothing other than impoliteness. Fortunately, since we heard 
about this problem quite late we didn’t say anything. At night Zühdü 
talked about his travails during the Balkan War. It was really quite 
touching. Tonight my dream was about the front line. I was heading 
for a place like a forward outpost amidst some deprivations. It seemed 
that Halis and my mother were there. Halis gave me two liras as a 
precaution since we were partners again. My mother gave me 15 liras. 
At first I didn’t accept this, saying to Halis ‘you’ll be coming a bit 
later anyway dear friend.’ But when they insisted I accepted. I felt very 
bad when I was leaving them. Because the worry on their faces gave 
me a deep sadness, as well. I woke up then.

//END of PART LXIX//


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