Salihli, just at the time when the Turkish Army was
further to the east and making its final push towards
Izmir, in August 1922.//
This POW was arrested in Salihli, center right, and taken to
Izmir.
The Calamities that Befell a Person from Salihli:
On 1 August 1922, because I did not recognize and sign for
the illegal
occupation I was seized and released after 28 hours in confinement.
On 30 August 1922, I was seized from my shop during the
crushing
defeat (final Turkish Army push toward Izmir) and put on a train to
Izmir’s Basmane station where I was subjected to many degradations.
The
guards forced me to use an excessive amount of my own money
for transit on a
cart to the Maltiz police station, after much roaming
around. I was put into a cellar adjoining a privy
that was not fit for
animals. The door
was shut and we were forced to hold our noses until
morning. Before noon, we were brought to the Tepecik Prisoner
Camp.
Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), İsmet (İnönü) and Col. Asım
(Gündüz) conferring about the plan of attack, 25 August
1922).
Five days later, as our victorious army was approaching
Izmir, we
were transported to Midilli Island and put into a place called Aya
Marina farm. Eight of us were given one
loaf of bread and remained
hungry for a few days. While we were there Kemal from Istanbul, who
had been captured in Uşak, escaped and, as a consequence, 38 of us
were
sentenced to death.
We were brought to
an armory in Midilli, our money was taken from us
and Salim, who was also from
Istanbul but worked as a pharmacist in
Uşak, was accused of withholding information
about the escape and
subjected to 60 cudgel blows. We were denied food and drink. In fact,
we had to pay one lira for a can of
water. After remaining here for 12
days,
we were brought to a prison camp for transport to Athens. But a
number of times we were forced to march
2.5 hours away to Aya
Marina farm and back again. Among us was a 95-year-old man who
could
hardly bear the walking and movement.
Midilli (Lesvos) Island (red marker).
We stayed on Midilli Island for 22 days and then boarded a
ship. The
captain was a vicious fiend
who denied there was water for us, even
though we saw that there was
water. He taunted us by saying that he
was turning toward Izmir but we were placed in the hold of the ship
and the
ladders were removed.
In the 72 hours
until we reached Piraeus we suffered horrors that would
make one forget Karbelâ
and horrific degradations and beatings that are
beyond imagining, without being
given even a drop of water. They
threatened us with guns and were ready to inflict any and all calamities
on us. We screamed that 50 or 60 of us were dying so
they removed
those who had passed out
from the heat and lack of air on stretchers.
Thank God, after 2 hours on the deck they
came to.
At Piraeus, we were subjected to the insults of the populace
and brought
to Gudi prison camp, where we stayed out in the open for a week
without bread and
other necessities. As if this wasn’t bad
enough, they
seized the prayer rugs and kilims that some of us were using as
covers,
saying that such things were forbidden to prisoners. We made some
complaints via our embassy to the
Embassy of Holland, after which they
put us into a covered cavalry animal
shelter with a stone floor and an
open front, where we stayed for about a month before being sent to the
Lucia civilian
prison camp.
We were at Lucia during the fiercest winter months, staying
in old,
tattered tents amid the rain.
Since the bread and food they gave us was
inedible, we bought what we
wanted with our own money so, in this
sense, we considered ourselves well off,
relative to others. This, of
course,
applied to those who had money. The
water at Lucia was
brackish so we were willing to purchase commercial water,
but they
wouldn’t let us. We were able
to dispell our thirst with tea but many
of the poor prisoners among us died
because of dysentery. A brutal
Greek soldier,
whose name I can’t recall, beat an elderly prisoner, on
the pretext of cutting
in line, so badly with a brickbat that the man
died a few days later from the
blows.
After staying at Lucia for 5 months, we were brought to
Piraeus for
the prisoner exchange. While
we were being given over to our
representative Muzaffer Bey and the Red Cross delegation, the matter
of the
transport of the Pontus refugees from Turkey arose and our
transport was
delayed on the order of (Prime Minister) Gonatas.
Ultimately, we were boarded onto a Greek
warship and taken to Kandia,
Crete, where our
Moslem co-religionists were supportive of us, giving
us newspapers and
water despite Greek threats. The Moslem
schools
and mosques had been closed on Crete and they forbade the call to
prayer being announced. Even private
praying was not allowed. In fact,
for a Friday prayer the leader of the Moslem community, Nuri Bey, had
to get special
permission from the governor and the military commander
to hold the
service.
Kandia (Candia-Heraklion) is on the north-central coast of
Crete.
I have included what I can
remember, although there were many other
similarly horrific incidents. After staying at Kandia for 17 days, the
prisoner exchange delegation came to get us and on 29 March 1923,
thanks be to
God, I was able to set foot on my homeland’s sacred
ground.
17 June 1923 Mehmed
Nuri, son of Aksekili Hacı Hüseyin, of Salihli
//END of PART XX//
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