3 Temmuz 2019 Çarşamba

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

//Ed. Note:  As this TNT series continues, the reports shift 
from those of military POWs to civilian ones.  The
introduction to the Ottoman document mentions 4
chapters, only two of which TNT has been able to 
obtain, transcribe and translate (1 & 2 below).//

turkish greek war 1922 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
The war went on into 1922 and peace was agreed to in 1923.


Contents

1 – What Our Civilian Prisoners in Greece Witnessed
2 – Important Statements from our Prisoner Officers
3 – Tragedies That Befell Our Poor Captive Soldiers
3 – Official Reports and Documents

Section One

Our Civilian Prisoners’ Experiences

During the War of Independence,  innocent men, women and children 
of the population were captured by the Greeks in contravention of  laws 
of humanity and the laws of civilization, as were our poor officers and 
soldiers who became prisoners on the field of battle and who were 
subjected to all kinds of torture and wretched treatment in a variety of 
locations. This is the subject of this brochure.

Ankara: Publishing and Intelligence Press
1339 (1923)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Greeks Extracted Gold Teeth with a ‘Kasatura’ (shoe knife)
The Important Statement of a Civilian Turkish Prisoner:

The statement of Mumtaz Efendi, the son of Menlazade Hacı Ali Paşa, 
resident in (Afyon)Karahisar’s Zaviye Sultan quarter, who was taken 
guiltless by the Greeks from Karahisar to Greece and who has returned, 
is presented herewith:

Question: What kinds of mistreatment and torture did you experience 
while in captivity in Greece?  What was the reason for your banishment? 
Where did you stay in Greece? What kind of treatment did other 
prisoners experience and what sort of cruelties did you witness and do ?

Answer: They took my 272.5 Ottoman liras cash money by forceable 
seizure.  We were taken to the Athens Lucia camp, where we stayed with 
high-ranking officers.  They took my gold ring, watch and chain, amber 
cigarette set and other things.  I appealed to get them back but the bosses 
kept them and my appeals were not acted on.  They took the gold teeth 
out of the mouths of some of my co-religionists and fellow captives by 
using a ‘kasatura’ (shoe knife).  They also took my prayer rug, worth 
50 liras.  

afyonkarahisar 1920 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
                             Afyonkarahisar in 1920.

We were made to work hungry at menail jobs and they gave us 
8 drachmas per 24 hours and fed us fish.  Complaining that we weren’t 
working hard enough, they hoisted us bound up into fruit trees and beat 
us to their hearts’ content.  They ridiculed and cursed us for our beliefs 
and said bad things about the Prophet Muhammed.  The money we 
earned from work was taken from us and the letters we sent to our 
families were burned in front of our eyes.  The Moslem clergymen who 
were with us were beaten and degraded and not allowed to worship.  

When we wanted to bury our companions who died from hunger, 
beatings and torture we were denied permission.  Their bodies lay for 
days out in the open and after they began to decompose they had us 
bury them without  ‘tekfin’ (traditional wrapping of a corpse in Islamic 
burial custom).    Our co-religionists who lay wasted in the hospital 
were poisoned to death.  We were brought to exhaustion because they 
withheld water.  To relieve ourselves we had to walk 15 minutes away 
to a ditch they had us dig.  

At night when we relieved ourselves close by, they beat us nearly to 
death for despoiling the area. Those who went to the ditch we dug were 
stripped, killed and thrown into the filth, so when we went there in the 
day time to relieve ourselves we saw their bodies.   There was 
incredibly inhumane treatment.  

Some of us were brought to homes to work as servants.  These people 
were then accused of molesting the family’s virgin daughters, forced to 
convert to Christianity and beaten and pressured to marry the girls.  In 
other words,  these were forced conversions to Christianity.  These 
‘converts’ are still there in Greece.  At present, there are others who 
have not been released and the Greeks still prey upon them, shooting 
some to death in their tents.  One of the wounded was Emin Ağa of 
Tavşanlı in Kütahya.

Question:  Do you want to continue your statement?

Answer:  He (Emin Ağa) came back to Karahisar but the bullet has 
still not been extracted.  The Greeks did many similar bad things.  When 
they seized me from my house they said that “you Turks banished the 
Christians in olden times here and your still syping on us!”  Without 
giving me a chance to contact anyone, they demanded my money but 
I had nothing to give them.  

izmir athens crete map ile ilgili görsel sonucu
After his seizure at Afyonkarahisar, about parallel with
Izmir but off the map to the right, this POW was 
transported from Izmir to Lucia camp in Athens and from 
there to Kandia on Crete, from where he returned to 
Turkey.


A month later I was brought to Athens via Izmir and put in the Lucia 
camp in Athens.  I was made to work in many villages whose names 
I don’t know.  Then I was transported to Crete and I returned here from 
Kandia.  When the general delegation arrived we were released.  
Besides me, all of my fellow prisoners were subjected to inhumane 
treatment that would not be inflicted on animals.

I witnessed many horrific things.  If I were to talk about all of them it 
would fill book volumes, not just the column of a newspaper.  But I 
will be content with what I have said here.

Question:  I have read your statement out loud. Will you now sign 
what you have written?

Answer: I have listened to your reading and I now sign to confirm 
what I have written.

Police Officer M. Rıfat (statement-taker)
Mumtaz (statement-giver)


//END of PART XVI//

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