25 Temmuz 2019 Perşembe

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

//Ed. Note: The north Aegean port city of Edremit was 
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 haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu
                                   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 yenice haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu
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.

inönü sakarya savaşları ile ilgili görsel sonucu
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 yunan işgalı ile ilgili görsel sonucu

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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