21 Mayıs 2019 Salı

TNT POW Reports: Turks in Greek Hands (1920-1923)/Part I

Ed. Note: During the Greek occupation of Anatolia, which 
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 edirne haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu

                    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 corfu map ile ilgili görsel sonucu
    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.

turkish pows in greece 1920 ile ilgili görsel sonucu

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


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