23 Mayıs 2019 Perşembe

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

//Ed. Note: These reports were mostly taken as statements 
from Turkish POWs returning from Greece in June-July
1923.//

afyonkarahisar haritası 1920 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
The writer was captured by the Greeks east of Afyon, ostensibly
in the "Italian Zone" in the Anatolia of 1920.


The statement of a lieutenant: 

Lieutenant Kadir Efendi, who returned from captivity, is the son of 
Şükrü of the Hamzaoğulları from Yeni Cemazir village.  This is his 
statement about his observations during captivity:

I was taken prisoner while injured with two other soldiers, whose names 
I don’t know, in the vicinity of Nasuçal, east of Afyonkarahisar.   I was 
transported to İzmir, Piraeus, Athens and then Lefkada Island, where 
there were about 270 officer prisoners.

During our movement through Greece we learned that there were about 
600 civilian prisoners on Corfu Island and that their situation was 
particularly deplorable.  I don’t know who they are or where they are 
from.  It was said that 50-60 people were dying every day.  I heard in 
Izmir that a ship was being sent for their return to their countries.  I have 
no information about how many prisoners there are on other islands.


lefkada corfu map ile ilgili görsel sonucu
        Lefkada and Corfu Islands, off Greece's west coast.

Officers were given just 450 franks for food and salary.  They had to pay 
for their clothes out of this money.  The soldiers’ food was not very good 
at all.  I cannot say that the treatment we experienced was at all humane. 
We were subjected to all kinds of torture and degradation.  Our 
complaints were about food and increasing our salaries but these fell on 
deaf ears.

My Capture:

I fell in to hands of the Greeks in the vicinity of Nasu Çalı in an injured 
condition.  They dragged me to the rear and while I was there I was 
subjected to all kinds of degradation and tortured with beatings.  They 
didn’t bring me to the hospital.  I found out that friends like me who 
were taken prisoner on the roads were given similar treatment.   They 
killed a large portion of the prisoners  and especially injured ones. 
witnessed this myself.  We spent quite a few days waiting in Kütahya 
under these conditions of oppression and degradation.  Finally we were
taken to Izmir and from there, together with 30 other officers whose 
names I don’t know, to Piraeus.  The brutality and torture continued 
there.  In fact, in ?Yazapigmaz? prison in Athens, were were left without 
any food for 3 days.  We stayed in this prison for 15 days, after which we 
were transported to the fortress on Lefkada Island.  

lefkada island fortress map ile ilgili görsel sonucu
Agia Mavra Fortress, red dot at top, was the Turks' prison on
Lekada Island.

During the 20 months of my imprisonment in this fortress, the Greeks 
relentlessly brutalized and tortured us.  We were prisoners not of the 
Greek government, but of a sergeant and the local Greeks who came to 
the fortress now and then would ridicule the level of our degredation and 
incite the Greeks to be even more brutal toward us.   Thank God, when 
our heroic army re-took Izmir this type of treatment was relaxed a bit.  
Subsequently, we were resettled from the fortress to within the town.   
Two months later the prisoner exchange began.  This is all the general 
and abridged information about the inauspicious life we experienced in 
Greece that I can provide.

Another soldier's story:

Osmanoğlu Hasan, of the Kosif Oğullar from Ayasofya quarter of 
Trabzon and a medic in the 55th Regiment  1st Battalion, returned from 
captivity.  He has stated that he joined the war in Izmir’s Söke area and 
was taken prisoner there;  he was transported to the city of Piraeus in 
Greece and put in with a group of 500 other prisoners;  ten soldiers 
were allocated to a tent and, under guard, these 500 people lived their 
lives this way for a year;  those in one tent were not allowed to converse 
with others in another tent and sick and healthy prisoners were not 
separated;  the Greeks would say “you’re avoiding work” and shoot 
them dead;  sick soldiers who went to the hospital were not looked 
after and died;  Most of the members of this prisoner group were from 
the populace of Çanakkale and Bursa.  Subsequently, they were sent to 
Istanbul; there is no information about prisoners in various places.

söke haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu
This soldier was captured near Söke, transported to Izmir and
from there to Pireaus, the port of Athens.

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