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

//Ed. Note: This POW was seized by the Greeks near 
Afyonkarahisar, escaped, but was recaptured and force-
marched to Uşak.  He was transported to Izmir but does 
not relate any details beyond that.//

The statement of Mehmed, son of Osman, of (Afyon)Karahisar

I was taken prisoner in Çatalçeşme near (Afyon)Karahisar on 27 March 

1921.  40 members of our company and 50 people from Çatalçeşme 

village were made prisoners.  We were left in İnas village under the 

supervision of 25 bayonet-wielding guards.  At about 4 o’clock in the

morning, the guards were asleep and there was a Greek camel brigade 

near us so, risking death, I took a sack of straw from the brigade and 

escaped.  

I reached Sesek vilage.  I wanted to get to my own army’s location but 

they wouldn’t leave me alone.  I pretended that I wanted to bring the 

straw to my animals and they said that they would be going to my village

tomorrow.  But I didn’t go to the village.  Thinking that there might be 

soldiers there,  I sat in a ditch alongside the road all night.  Early in the 

morning I saw a fellow from one of the surrounding villages and I asked 

him for a ride to Karahisar in his horse cart.  He agreed and I changed my 

clothes before arriving in Karahisar.  

After spending a time in my home there, a Jewish enemy who knew me 

and had seen me with my commander informed on me and I was seized.  

The Greeks said I was an officer but I denied this.  Nevertheless, they held 

me there for a while, along with 470 others.  Toward evening they forced 

us to march, hungry and thirsty.  We were barefooted and without clothes 

because they had taken all our belongings and sold them to the local 

populace.  Along this horrific journey there were 15 people whose 

strength gave out an they were bayonetted to death by the guards or 

beaten so badly they couldn’t continue.  

Afyonkarahisar is about at the eastern extent of the red Greek

area.  This POW was captured while the Second Battle of 

İnönü was underway at İnönü, further to the north (23 March-

1 April 1921), just west of Eskişehir.

We walked for 18 hours over 3 days to Uşak, where the central 

commander put a gun to my chest and made me swear to tell the truth.  

I was asked how many cannons our army has, how many machine guns, 

how many soldiers and how many weapons.  I claimed I wasn’t a soldier 

and pointed out that I had been seized by them in my home.  I told them 

I had no connection to the military at all.  They didn’t believe me and 

inflicted 150 lashes on me.  The commander got carried away to the point 

that he kicked my arm, which even now is still maimed.  

After being beaten I was imprisoned in a toilet for 7 days and the 

commander, in his greed, even took my 32 liras. They even took cigarette 

papers.  I was given no food or water while I was imprisoned but they 

poured buckets of water on me during the nights.   After these 7 days they 

brought me to a mosque, where they again accused me of lying and put 

me in front of a firing squad.  I was given a reprieve but transported to 

Izmir, where I was seized by the Gendarmerie because word had been 

passed to them that I was an officer.  I was given no bread and only got 

something to eat by begging for it.  I had previously been taken prisoner 

by the English, but this was far worse.

A year later, in 1922, the Turks launched major attacks on

Afyonkarahisar, on their way to Izmir, which was taken by

the Turks in September 1922.

Question: Do you know the names of those who were killed by bayonet 

while on the road?

Answer: No, I don’t know because they said they had come from Ankara.  

I only knew them as Ahmet and Mehmet.  I don’t know their hometowns 

or their personal particulars.

Q: Will you sign your statement?

A: I sign my statement.

Police officer M. Celaluddin (statement-taker)

Mehmet, owner of the statement

//END of PART VIII//