6 Ağustos 2019 Salı

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

//Ed. Note: Muzaffer Akpınar provided detailed information
about his prison time in Athens, first at Monastiraki Prison
and then at Liosia Prison Camp.//

another Japanese ship full of Turkish POWs click here for
a TNT report about Turkish POWs from another war
being transported back to Turkey but highjacked by the
Greeks in the Aegean Sea in 1921.

izmir 1922 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
               Greeks fleeing Izmir in early September 1922.




Toward Greece:

Herewith I submit some observations from my time in captivity in 
Greece, which lasted from 6 September 1922 to 6 April 1923:

On Wednesday, 6 September 1922, we left Izmir aboard a Japanese 
ship and reached Piraeus on Friday, 8 September 1922.  Again, we 
were paraded in handcuffs from Piraeus to Athens and put into the 
Monastiraki Prison.  We were housed in a 4-square-meter cement, 
airless, gloom-filled room in the prison’s basement and the room’s 
iron door bolts were locked.  There was a barrel in the corner of the 
room for use as our toilet.  

monastiraki liosia athens map ile ilgili görsel sonucu

20 of us were stuffed into this room but after 10 minutes the door 
was opened and I and my friend, teacher Sadeddin Bey, were taken out 
and brought to an automobile garage.  We were searched and whatever 
we had on us was taken away.  They had us unload sacks of grain from 
a truck at the door of the garage and then they made us clean the garage.  
When we returned to the prison we told the other fellows about our 
experience.  

Among us there was someone who knew Greek so we had him talk to 
the sergeant and soldiers about bribes – this is how we we exempted 
from forced labor.  From the prison we were transported to the Liosia 
(also spelled Lucia or Losya in other POW reports)  prison camp but 
they took 1,000 drachmas from us as a transport fee, although the truck 
we rode in only cost them 150 drachmas.  We realized that in the world 
of these scoundrels money is everything.

The Liosia Prison Camp:  it is a 4-pavilion garison built by the French 
at the beginning of the Great War with old worn-out tents left over from 
the War of ’93 (Turkish-Russian War of 1877-78) that they got from a 
warehouse in Salonica.  The camp is situated in a field between the 
Yenişehir highway and the Patras-Salonica railroad.   Of the 2,000
prisoners, about 800 were civilians and the rest soldiers.  There were 
8, 10 women prisoners, as well, along with 90-year-old elderly people, 
children as young as 3 and 5,  and blind and crippled people who 
couldn’t work or even walk.  Some of the women were pregnant and 
others were breast-feeding. 

ano liosia athens map ile ilgili görsel sonucu

At the garrison, 20 of us were stuffed into two tents.  Since it was still 
summertime, we were able to put up with the tears and rips in the tents.  
Within 4 or 5 days of settling into the tents, Ekrem Bey’s suitcase was 
stolen.  Some of my clothes were in the suitcase, too, along with Ekrem 
Bey’s 50 liras.  We found out who stole the suitcase but because the 
officers were in league with the thieves, our complaints came to naught 
and we were ignored.  Just about every day, clothes, boots and  
underwear were stolen by the many thieves. 

There was a perfectly good water tank and fountains at the camp but 
during the entire 8 months that we were there we never saw them 
working.  The prisoners who came before us said they saw them work 
twice.  The story was that the water didn’t flow because of the 
government’s unpaid debt to the water company.  Nevertheless, every 
15 or 20 days money was collected from prisoners by the officers  for
water but still none of us ever saw it flow.  We had to bribe the sergeant 
and soldiers in order to go get water from the church about 500 meters 
from the garrison.  We were almost like subscribers, paying 5 drachmas 
each to obtain 4 or 5 days of water.  Those without any money had to 
fight for a canteen of water.  

We filed a complaint with the garrison commander, prompting him to 
order water to be available for all of us.  Half an hour later, though, we 
were all confined to our tents and the fiends who were roaming around 
the tents  would beat the prisoners on the slightest pretext.  Anyone 
thinking about going to the commander about this would either be 
denied permission or characterized as a provacateur and jailed.   

Food was given twice a day.  This amounted to half a pack of tobacco, 
two cans of sardines, four olives, 7.5 dirhem (one dirhem is 1/400 of an 
okka , which is equal to 2.8 lbs.) of either cheese or tahin helva.  When 
hot food was provided it was either beans or potatoes.  Two okka of 
beans were thrown into a 200-okka capacity cauldron, along with 200 
dirhems of olive oil.  Each prisoner was given a spoon.  In honor of 
holidays or Easter a meal with meat was sometimes provided.  A rib 
of an old ox would be boiled from evening to morning and from 
morning till noon but still retain its redness.  Then it was thrown into 
a pot.  

From the commander down to the lowliest private, the Greeks would be 
so proud and grand about giving the prisoners a meal with meat.  The 
poor prisoners, who never got a decent meal on any day, would attack 
the meat right away, ripping off pieces and trying to chew it.  But the 
meat could neither be eaten or swallowed.  Nevertheless, the next day 
everyone had diarrhea and would collapse around the tents.

//END of PART XXVIII-E//


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