began with their arrival at Izmir on 15 May 1919, many
Turkish soldiers and civilians were taken as POWs and
mostly shipped to Greece for internment.
After the POWs managed to survive and return, Turkish
authorities took statements from them. The statements, or
reports, are both terrifying and fascinating. TNT has
transcribed/translated a trove of these reports and herewith
begins their presentation in a continuing series.
Two of the report have already been published by TNT:
Istanbul Scion Running Guns a story of occupied Istanbul's
resistance.
Ottoman Ship's Crew this POW story began in World War I.
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Given below is the statement about the POW life of Refahiye
Jandarma
Lieutenant:
My capture by the Greeks came about with the ignorant
support and
guidance that the local populace provided to the Greeks in
the town of
Şarköy in Gelibolu. After
I was kept hungry and destitute for a night, I
was transported under the bayonet blows of the Greeks and
the insults
of the populace to the Tekfur Dağı ((Tekirdağ)) Central
Command,
where I was called a traitor and the guards who brought me
were
sternly chastised for not having killed me, rather than
bring me here.
I was ordered to be thrown in the basement jail. My wounds were
not attended to so thanks to my unending screams, a few days
later a
traitorous doctor came to me.
Şarköy is at the intersection of the lines.
After 24 days of experiencing this oppression, myself and an individual
named Captain Nazif Bey
were transferred under great duress and with
great difficulties
to Muradlı station, from there to Edirne and from there,
together with
100 officers, to Athens.
Five days later, we were
transported to a fortress camp on the island of Lefkada. At first, we
100 officers were tormented in filth and despondancy in this fortress.
Two months later there were 150 officers and we began to receive some
meager provisions for our needs.
The officers and soldiers at the camp we are at have not
been returned.
We learned from the statements of our officer friends who
came from
Corfu that the approximately 600 civilian prisoners on Corfu
have not
been returned and that these poor people are moaning
under torture in
prisons, based on the assertions of criminals made against
each one of
them. Other than
being Turks, these people have done nothing wrong.
A year and a half ago there were 1,500 of them but now, because of
hunger and torture, between 900 and 1,000 of them have died
ghastly
deaths. This is ample
evidence of the cruelty and oppression that is a
congenital trait of the Greeks’ character and proof of the
mean and low
policy of destruction they follow.
Captain İbrahim Hakkı Bey, one of rare mathematicians our
nation has
produced and a superb
pharmacist, suffered at length from a
chronic
hemorrhoids affliction and because the Greeks did not
procure the
medicine he needed nor did they provide the necessary
treatment, he
died as a victim of the filth we are in. The simple stones placed to mark
the grave on this martyred man were shattered and
scattered. By taking
revenge even on the gravestones of our dead, the Greeks,
with these
treacherous and murderous actions, seem to know our return is
imminent. I think
that in all of mankind I shall never encounter such a
nation as this that displays its monstrous and vicious
nature so blatantly.
Lefkada and Corfu islands are off Greece's west coast.
None of us here have been imprisoned for any real
reason. It is just the
Greeks’ congenital monstrousness that keeps us here. They considered
us not as prisoners but,
rather, as slaves held in a fortress for the past 2.5
years. Besides the
friend mentioned in paragraph 3, no one else died.
No one remains confined there now.
Although during our imprisonment we were allocated 487
franks –
drahmas – monthly as a salary
and for food, we got this money once
every six or seven months, leaving us under duress and drowning in filth.
The Greek officers of the camp took full advantage of the grocer that
controlled these provisions and
subjected us to constant swindling with
regard to our allocations, pocketing the money themselves. With regard
to clothing and accommodations, after we all lay on wooden boards for a
few months, some of the officers were each given a cushion with a cover
and one each, sometimes two each, blankets. In the course of 3 years, a
portion of the officers were given a soldiers overcoat, but in exchange for
money.
The Greeks act contrary to the customs and traditions required
by international laws. The primary
traits of this nation are thievery, lying
and swindling. A Greek who does not act on the basis of these three
essentials can absolutely not live in Greece. So
a nation that lives in such
a way will naturally behave ruthlessly toward
prisoners: the treacherous
and cruel aims that they have nurtured against Turks allow them to strike
our soldiers for
any reason or pretext they invent, to subject our officers to
insults
every other day, to make our officers lie on wooden boards and, for
one pretext
or another, leave them hungry and thirsty, with no lamplight
at night
and no permission to go to the privy to relieve themselves – even
those who cannot help themselves and go are fired upon. Letters,
newspapers, etc., are completely
forbidden and, in fact, even two-line
letters with health news sent by the Red Crescent and the Red Cross are
ripped
up and thrown away for all to see.
In short, the Greeks, who
overwhelmed the prisoners with these and many more unimaginable
restrictions and
privations, were doing all of this in accordance with their
low and immoral
policies and plans.
Our captivity adventure was quite painful and bitter. In fact, it was so
bad that it would make one’s heart break and skin crawl. There was a
black sergeant in our garrison named Takifuri who was like a
monster.
There was no cruelty and torture he
did not inflict on both officers and
soldiers. This murderer was charged with overseeing and guarding 250
officers, yet he would make the Inquisition tyrants look tame by
comparison. And although we took every opportunity to complain about
this commander
to visiting delegations and international prisoner
inspectors, his ability
to commit atrocities continually increased and he
was even complimented
by these shameless governments for his butality.
Only the Greeks can be characterized by this shamelessness and vileness,
the likes
of which mankind has never seen before.
It is impossible to cite
the precise number of this murderer’s cruelties and atrocities because our
notebooks
were seized and on account of the excessive number of his
crimes. In any case, our friend Captain Cemal Bey has presented these
atrocities in the
newspapers ‘Şark’ and ‘Ahenk’ in Izmir under the
heading ‘gallery of cruelties’. We heard that thousands of our comrades
died in conditions of hunger and
filth from beatings and torture
at camps
in and near Preveze. I suppose
that the matter has been verified by the
soldiers who were at these
camps but it was impossible for us to do so
because we had no way to be
in contact with them. We received
news
that in the soldier and civilian prisoner garrisons in other camps on Crete,
blind, crippled, sick Moslem men
and women from 7 to 70 years of age
were rounded up for no reason and each
one of them died in particularly
horrific ways.
Our women and girls taken as prisoners of war have been used
by this
pack of monsters for their satisfaction. If I were to say that I have heard
that some of them were subjected to unimaginable atrocities I would
not
be wrong. Nevertheless, the cruelties and tragedies perpetrated
occurred
mostly at the soldier and civilian prisoners garrisons and,of course, these
were confirmed and reported by the concerned individuals to the
appropriate
offices.
In summary, with regard to the atrocities perpetrated by the
Greeks, they
are countless and innumerable.
Certainly, I have only been able to write
here those which come to mind, so I can not offer any others.
First Lieutenant in Refahiye
Hafiz Ali
Same as the original
15 July 1923
Yozgat Gendarmerie Battalion Command
1
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