12 Temmuz 2019 Cuma

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

//Ed. Note: This POW was captured by the Greeks at
Salihli, just at the time when the Turkish Army was
further to the east and making its final push towards 
Izmir, in August 1922.//

salihli haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu
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.

salihli büyük taarruz 1922 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
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 island map ile ilgili görsel sonucu
                      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.

athens piraeus map ile ilgili görsel sonucu

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.  

heraklion crete map ile ilgili görsel sonucu
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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