occupation force in Edremit during Muzaffer Akpınar's 43-
day incarceration, followed by his transport to Izmir, just
days before the Turkish Army arrived there.//
Health center in Edremit named for Muzaffer Akpınar.
"May God Protect He Who Falls Into My Hands"
When they realized that this situation would not bear any
fruit, an
Armenian officer named Hayik Kerabe, together with four or five
bayonet-wielding soldiers, came for me.
They took me to the top
floor of a warehouse building they had turned
into a barracks, outside
of town. Right
away, around 30 soldiers surrounded me, waiting for
a signal. The
Armenian officer then said in fluent Turkish: “Hey
Muzaffer, you have
no doubt heard my name as the officer who breaks
arms and legs and kills
men. Whoever falls into my hands, may
God
have mercy on him. You will either
confess everything here or depart
this world.”
In response, I said that whatever happens it will only be
the same as
the death I’ve been threatened with so far by each of my horrific
experiences. I added that although I
thought that my honorable,
serious and genuine responses were being heard, in
fact, the examples
of your cruelty have persuaded me to remain silent
henceforth. The
officer became angry and
right away he ordered 8 or 10 soldiers to
randomly cut branches in the garden
about 5 centimeters thick to beat
me with.
Then they had me sit cross-legged and commenced the
bullying in the
warehouse building. I could no longer
hear or see
anything.
They left me to
my misery for a while but assembled once again to
press me with the same old
questions, to which I gave the same old
responses. Herewith I write in brief some of the
incidents I witnessed
during my 43 days in the occupation bureau:
A young teacher from Balıkesir named Mehmet Necati Efendi,
who
came to Edremit for a visit, and a senior bureaucrat named Hasan
Efendi from Midilli Island, were falsely accused of having contacts
with others
outside of Edremit and brought to a place outside of town
where they were made
to dig their own graves and were buried up to
their chests;
A good friend of mine named Cevdet Ma’mur Bey was beaten and
horribly tortured. They pressed hot iron
on his feet and poured hot
olive oil on his stomach;
Kasap Salim of Midilli Island was accused of distributing
weapons to
gangs so they poured more than 650 grams of boiling olive oil on his
stomach and roasted him;
Many villagers were subjected to similar tortures to confess
that there
were secret organizations in their villages near to Edremit. As I noted
above, it is impossible to record all the
incidents. I was able to write
down a
few that I recorded with some circuitous markings in my
notebook but the fiends found it and ripped it up in my house.
Our incarceration in Edremit lasted for 140
days and each one was a
horror. In light
of the approaching Turkish offensive in Anatolia, it
was decided to move us to
Izmir, on the pretext that we would be tried.
20 of us were transported in handcuffs to the General Staff HQS in
Izmir
on 2 September 1922. From the General
Staff HQS, they took
us to the Occupation Bureau, the Gendarmerie Bureau, the
Tepecik
Prison Camp and the prison, before we reached the prisoners ferry at
Punta Station (Alsancak). Their aim
was to display us all over Izmir
and the local Greeks lining the streets of the
city chided our captors
for still not having killed us already.
Yet, the scent of the fast approaching heroic
Turkish Army was in the
air those days and neither a Greek officer nor other
senior officials
remained in Izmir. It was a mass exodus, with ships continually
taking
away those fleeing the city.
Groups from areas surrounding Izmir
flooded into the city seeking
reguge. None of the Greek bureaus in
Izmir
wanted to deal with us so in the end we were held at the
Gendarmerie transport
office. Finally, the decision was made
to send
us to Athens. On the evening of
Wednesday, 6 September 1922 – just
48 hours before the Turkish Army liberated Izmir - we were put on
the Japanese ship ‘Namuza’ and
transported to Piraeus.
//END of PART XXVIII-D//
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