occupied by the Greek Army for over 700 days, from
July 1920 to 9 September 1922. POW reports from
4 Turkish prisoners provide extensive and detailed
information about both the occupation of Edremit and
the POWs subsequent imprisonment at Liosia (Lucia)
Prison Camp in Athens.
Herewith TNT presents the first of these 4 reports,
written by the Edremit Public Prosecutor, who wrote
only about Edremit, not Liosia://
Edremit (red marker)
The Statement of a Lawyer:
I feel a burden of conscience to
inform the honored commanders of the
knowledge I have, based on my official
duties, of the horrific and
inhumane atrocities perpetrated on the people of
Edremit and the
surrounding villages during the Greek occupation.
The occupation of Edremit by
Greek soldiers began early in the morning
on Thursday, 1 July 1920. The first occpation commander, Capt.
Mavromatis, took large amounts of money from the notables of the town
and acted
despicably in his efforts to harm the honor of many chaste
women. At the beginning of this ill-omened
occupation, as part of my
official duties I wanted them to arrest common
brigands who had long
terrorized our homeowners. But these thieves were protected by the
Greek
officials, while I was threatened with death and trial at the
General Staff
HQS. Individuals who performed important
duty during
our national struggle were beaten, degraded and jailed upon the
incitement of these criminal gangs and, fearing for their lives and their
honor, they and others found an opportunity to escape. A while later,
the local Greeks returned from
Greece and these ungrateful citizens
began to implement Venizelos’s policy of silent and stealthy destruction.
At present, there is a commission
headed by Garazyorg that includes
Dr. Kaipolitis and other Christians who
caused the looting and pillaging
of all of the property of Moslems. In those days, Sa’d Bey, who was
then the
district chief in Edremit, provided great assistance to the
Greeks on these
matters. In the time after the occupation,
a
representation was established in Edremit and its political duty was to
implement the policy of destruction against the Turks, under the
direction
of İstiryadis, the chief
superintendant of police in Izmir.
The
mendacity that is the Greeks’ natural disposition was now being
clearly
manifested by its top military officers and bureaucrats. The
complaints and cries of the victimized
and terrorized Turks were met
with indifference by the Greeks. The atrocities and torture were
inflicted in the
villages, in particular.
Agonya is today's Yenice, northeast of Edremit in Çanakkale
province.
Tyrannical Greek Gendarmerie
sergeants and soldiers were being sent
to poor Agonya. These fiends stole everything, raped the
women and
whipped many young men and women to death. The number of souls
Agonya gave up until its liberation
exceeds at least 20,000. A Greek
regiment of unknown troop-strength that was sent from Balıkesir to
this area
robbed the people of the villages of everything. They killed
many Turks and snatched gold and
jewelry from the necks and hair of
women, selling their loot openly in the
Edremit market.
The Greek militias,
political clubs and local Christians endeared
themselves to the Greek
government with actions like these. At
the
time, the son of Edremitli Baba Adil
and Hanife, the mother of
Hecinzade Hüseyin Efendi in Turan village,
were murdered by the
Greek Gendarmerie.
There were many Turkish corpses to be seen
around the piers at Ilıca and
Akçay. The Greeks gave no heed to
protests lodged by the District Chief and Public Prosecutor. A local
committee was formed by Greeks like
Edremitli Siraçzade Mehmed
and Çerkes Vehbi, along with a number of irreligious individuals
whose
identities were not clear, with the aim of quickly wiping out
Turkishness. Any and all people considered to be intellectuals and
nationalists were rounded up daily by
secret police. In those days,
the Greeks
were out of control, haughtily announcing they would
take Ankara and holding
torchlight processions with this in mind.
Edremit, not shown on this map, is directly west of Balıkesir
on the Aegean Sea coast.
But their defeat at Sakarya gave these insolent Greeks pause.
Nevertheless, based on this committee’s decision, District Judge
Fahreddin Bey, lawyer Faik Kemâl, Reji (Tobacco Monopoly) Director
Fehmi and
merchant Karagözzade Ali were arrested on 13 April. On
various other dates I, pharmacist Muzaffer
Bey, shopkeeper Seyyid Bey,
Havran Mayor Mahrum Bey, Cevdet Bey, Magistrate
Faik Bey,
Municipal Doctor Osman Bey, Hecinzade Hüseyin of Turan village,
Town
Chief Abidin Bey and a number of other officials were arrested,
along with
people from Agonya and other villages, with the total of
those arrested
reaching 3,000.
Political prisoners were
held in the boys school, where the occupation
office was situated, and it
became an overcrowded prison. An Edremit
lawyer named Alvi Bey gathered up the
representatives to the Greeks,
the carpenter’s son and the town shopkeepers and
appealed to the
occupation commander Major Karadus, saying in no uncertain
terms
that these atrocities must end and that they were, in fact, detrimental
to
Greek interests.
Nevertheless, Çerkes
Vehbi let the provocations against us continue,
disallusioning Alvi Bey. So his brother Hüseyin Bey, a lawyer in
Burhaniye, fled to Istanbul at Alvi Bey’s direction and informed
officials
there about the atrocities being inflicted on the populace of
Edremit. Thanks to Hüseyin Bey, Ottoman officials in
Istanbul
informed the English commissarate, which was then persuaded to
send a
stern note to the Greeks to end these oppressions.
The abovementioned arrestees were
subjected to the most horrific
tortures by the Greeks. For example, they poured a pan of burning
olive oil on the stomach of Adalı Kasap Salim and 20 hours later he
was seen to
be holding on for dear life. Pharmacist
Muzaffer Bey,
Muammer Bey and Zade Cevdet Bey were hung by their feet and
beaten with bats and rifle butts by the Gendarmerie soldiers until
blood spewed
from their mouths. Hot oil was poured on
their bodies
and they were poked with hot iron rods. Balıkesir teacher Necati Bey
was buried alive
and his eulogy written to the sound of gunfire above
him. In short, all of these atrocities were
inflicted in the presence of
occupation commander Major Kafadus and First
Lieutenant Papadaki
(currently the secretary in the Kandia National Bank on
Crete). But the
Greeks were intent on
frightening and terrorizing these youths away
from the ideal of Turkishness.
An officer candidate, an Armenian
named Hanyu, who from his accent
and attitude was from Istanbul, was an example
of this horrific excess,
being responsible for the deaths of at least 3,000
Moslems in Agonya
and other villages.
Europe should be ashamed of these cruelties, which
were committed in
Turan, Göre and Agonya.
Edremit District Chief Hamdi Bey, left, and Seyit Sait Bey,
Chief of the Turkish National Army organization in Edremit.
The Greeks were unsuccessful in
implementing this Inquisition program
that vexed the spirit of God. Like other parts of the homeland, Edremit
survived despite these wounds, sicknesses and atrocities. After the
great and heroic attack of our army
that bewildered the Greeks, and
three days before they suffered the second blow
in Izmir, myself,
District Judge Fahreddin Bey and 18 others were transported
under
guard to Izmir. Prior to our
arrival there, about 200 heroes from
Agonya had been sent to an unknown
neighborhood but, unfortunately,
to this day there has been no word about their
fate. While we were in
Izmir, the enemy,
living his last hours there, paraded us around the
factory streets and
Christian neighborhoods for 2 days. We
suffered
the spits, insults and curses of common women, as well as the obscene
words of the Christians. At the Gendarmerie waiting
station called
“Me’zun Devre”, our murder was discussed a number of times.
Former Edremit Public Prosecutor
and Lawyer
Mehmed Mahi
//END of PART XXV//
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