prisoners taken from Izmit and incarcerated in Liosia
Prison in Athens. For an even more thorough and gripping
description of Liosia, see the report of pharmacist Muzaffer
Akpinar (Part XXVIII-A through H, of this series.)//
Izmit-related POW report click here for a TNT POW
report that preceded this series but is essentially a
part of it.
What Our Prisoners Witnessed:
1.When the Greeks occupied the
area about 150 people were arrested
and when the Greeks evacuated Izmit when
the Turkish National Army
re-took it in June 1921, some 370 Moslems from Izmit
and the
surrounding villages were thrown into the bottom of a decrepit warship,
tortured within the hold by local Greek and Armenian committee
members and
Greek soldiers who had been sentenced to death, left
hungry and thirsty for 8
days and nights, and then deposited at the
Liosia (Lucia) Prison Camp in
Athens.
Since this camp was a transit
point, there were 800-900 civilian
prisoners and between 1,000 and 3,000 military
prisoners. Among
these prisoners were
men in their 80s and 90s, blind and crippled
people and children aged 11 and
12. Because our returning prisoners
do
not know the number of men and women held in various locations
in Athens and in
the prison called Braygman and its dungeons,
it is
not possible to state this number.
2.There are some of our civilian
prisoners who have not returned and
one of them is Meyitoğlu Hüseyin Ağa from
Izmit’s Ahmedcik quarter.
His address
is: Kapilon Military Prison, Athens, registry number 3999,
Meyit Oğulları son
of Tahir, Hüseyin Ağa.
3.The particulars of our civilian
prisoners who died in Greece are given
below and the causes of their deaths
were beatings and hunger. On the
night
that our prisoners were off-loaded at the pier at Pireaus they were
quickly
marched to Liosia Prison Camp in Athens.
Of those who could
not walk fast enough were retired Capt. Osman Efendi
from Adapazarı
and Adalı Tatar Ahmed Dayı,who were viciously bayonetted to
death by
Greek soldiers.
These civilian
prisoners of ours were beaten at the prison camp in Athens
in our presence, to which we attest with our
signatures below. They died
from
beatings and illnesses derived from hunger in the stables and tents
at
theprison camp at various times. Those
who died were: 1) Arnavut
(Albanian) Halim Kahya from Çukurbağ village 2) Civilian felt cap
maker Osman Baba
3)Bearer Pala Mustafa Ağa from Hamza Fakıa
village 4) Laz Mahmud Çavuş from Karabaş village 5)Vehile tender
Salim Usta of Izmit 6) Civilian handyman Mustafa Dayı of Izmit’s
Ağa
village 7) Civilian Hüseyin Baba of Belenören village. These were
civilian prisoners who died from
blows to the head.
4.One prisoner who remained in
Greece is Meyitoğlu Hüseyin of
Ahmedcik village. The now-disolved Izmit Greek General Staff
sentenced him to 101 years in jail.
Currently, he is in a Greek military
prison. He had been taken prisoner at the time when
the Greeks
occupied Izmit. Our prisoners
were imprisoned for no reason.
Unfortunately, we do not know the number of those imprisoned who
died
and who remain in captivity. Many of
our prisoners died from
beatings and filth.
An example is Laz Mahmud Çavuş of Karabaş
village, who was spitting up
blood for days after being beaten.
Arnavut
Halim Kahya and his friend suffered the same fate.
Sick prisoners were sometimes sent to the
hospital but most of them
died horrible deaths in the tents and stables. One time 3 sick men,
whose identities are
unknown, died in a tent. Some of those
who
were sent to the hospital were intentionally poisoned. The poisoned
liquid they were forced to drink
induced 12 hours of horrific suffering,
after which they died. It would be nearly impossible to determine
their
names. Last year during the month
of Ramazan, the condition of
Turkish patients in the 4th Military Hospital was
quite alarming. In
particular, military
prisoners Halil, son of Kır Haliloğlu Mustafa of
Aziziye (Erzurum), and İsmail,
son of Koca Mustafaoğlu Hüseyin of
Denizli’s Akdere village, along with two
others, were in very dire
straits. They looked like skeletons, from lack of
care. We witnessed
the heart-breaking
death of İsmail but we did not witness the deaths
of the others.
//END of PART XXIX-A//
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