Akpınar recounts the threats the inmates endured from
outside the camp, conversions to Christianity and a spy
in their midst.//
The road mentioned ran by the camp near Ilia on the map
above, north of Athens.
Because the Yenişehir highway
passed through the garrison, the insults
hurled at us by passers-by became
intolerable. One day a cavalry
soldier
stopped in front of the garrison while on the highway. I was
there with two other fellows. The Greek soldier demanded to know if
there
was one among us from Afyonkarahisar. We
said yes, which
prompted him to take out his revolver. I was able to hide behind a
mulberry tree as
he fired. There were cries of contempt
from our tents,
as a prisoner from Aydin in one of them was hit by a bullet
that went
through one shoulder and out the other.
And
although the guards saw all this happen, they did nothing. The
shooter then turned his animal and
continued on his way. Greek
soldiers who
had been rescued from the panic in Anatolia were being
transported by train to
Thrace each day and for the sake of revenge
they would fire their gun at us as
they passed by. Fortunately, the
shots
these dogs fired didn’t kill anyone but two fellows were
wounded and treated by
the prisoner doctors among us.
The prisoners were given no
clothes and would roam around stark
naked. At times, a rumor would spread that the Dutch Ambassador or
a representative from the American Red Cross would be coming to
visit. This would prompt great activity in the camp,
with some of us
being given clothes, others blankets and others boots by the
Greeks.
Since the number of those in
need of clothing was just about equal to
the camp’s entire population, some prisoners were shunted to the fields
surrounding the garrison for a couple of hours.
As soon as the visitors
left, the distributed items would be retrieved
by the Greeks right away
and the prisoners in the fields would return to the
camp.
At our prison camp, among us were
some district chiefs, senior
bureaucrats, inspectors, judges, court officials,
doctors, pharmacists and
many other officials.
On the slightest pretext they would be taken to jail
or made to dig
latrine ditches. A young prisoner named
İbrahim was
taken from the pavillion by an armed guard one night and the next day
we found out they had converted him to Christianity. Complaints we
made to the camp commander and
the prisoner inspectorship went for
naught.
Anyone who wanted to pursue the matter was threatened and
sent
away.
Letters that came from prisoners’
families were only given to the
prisoners in exchange for money. In other words, each prisoner had
to pay to
read the letters from his family. Those
without money went
from tent to tent trying to borrow money so they could buy
their letters.
There were 6 Turkish officers at
our prison camp. One was a captain,
three were first lieutenants and the other two were second lieutenants.
They were given 400 drahmas each month for
their expenses – in the
later times a drahma was worth 60 kuruş – and they
could not get by
with this amount of money.
So to the extent possible, they tried to get
money from their
families. Those who could not, borrowed
from
many fellows at the camp in order to get along. The Greeks treated
them as they would a
Turkish private. In their tents thye had
neither
cots to sleep on nor blankets.
A Turkish Spy in the Camp:
There was also a fellow named
Mehmed Bey. This dishonorable creep
was
also known by the name Georgian Mehmet Bey and he was a
captain in the
Karamürsel militia. He identified
himself as a
Gendarmerie captain. He was
friendly with the Greeks, converted to
Christianity by marriage and was given a
permit by the Greeks to roam
freely, so he acted as their spy in the camp. This ignorant dog was a
low-life and without
honor. He was given largesse by the
Greeks, who
declared that if there was a gentleman among the Turkish officers
then
it would be Mehmed Bey.
//END of PART XXVIII-G//
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