//Ed. note: Concluding his saga, Eyüb Sabri Bey
relates how the POWs were returned to Turkey
and the bribes the English demanded in the
process.//
Escape and Freedom
25 August 1919
On this day, the happy news came that all Turkish
prisoners would be
returned home, prompting scenes of revelry in the camp until
the next
morning. The first group to go
was made up of 1,500 soldiers and
junior officers from Istanbul. Myself and my friends went to the camp
designated for transport but bad luck caught up with us once again.
While we were boarding the train, a
traitorous Cypriot translator
recognized us and had us returned to the
English.
We were held for another month and a half in a
different place under
strict supervision, at which point we decided among
ourselves that
escape was our only option.
So we split up. With the help of
duty
doctor Mazlum Bey of the second division, I went to the eye hospital
and
there, through the assistance of an Egyptian Catholic doctor, I
went to the
third division hospital, where hospital sergeant Bahtiyar
Ağa, an Albanian,
discharged me and I once again went to the
transport camp.
On 28 October, I mixed in with a group of 2,000
returning prisoners,
changed my clothes and appearance and, with God’s help, I
escaped
from the cruel hands of the enemy, making it back to my beloved
homeland.
English Fondness for Bribes
Return transport began on 25 August 1919. A few days earlier, the
English put the
Armenian and Greek prisoners is a separate camp.
Next, the Arab, Albanian, Bosnian and Kurdish
prisoners were
separated from the Turks and put into a camp reserved for the
Christians. The English plan was to
break up the Moslems but the
plan was unsuccessful because all the Moslems
remained true to
their faith and the Koran. In fact, these Moslems found a way
to
return to the Turkish soldiers’ camp, where they were welcomed with
hugs and
kisses. Of course, this enraged the
English.
Transport began with the Turks, in particular those
from Istanbul and
nearby places such as Bursa, Konya and Izmit. For some reason,
transport of those prisoners
from Izmir was delayed until after the
transport of those from Trabzon and
Erzurum. This situation presented
a
money-making opportunity for the English and it was then that I
realized how
greedy and adept the English are at bribery.
They would
have a healthy soldier prisoner go to the hospital for a day
and bring
him back to the transport camp, change an Izmir or Trabzon soldier’s
card to indicate Istanbul or Bursa, and change an Albanian or Kurd’s
card to
that of an Anatolian Turk in order to get into the first group of
returnees.
In return, the English first demanded two or three
Ottoman gold pieces.
Later, the price went to one or half a lira and finally
they deigned to
accept one or two Mecidiye coins or even just ten kuruş and
some
cigarettes from our soldiers. Our
Izmir fellows were quite good at
bargaining with the Englishmen, though, and
succeeded in getting
just about all of their men into the first transport group
by
hoodwinking their English collocutors.
Almost all of the camp guards participated in this
bribe-fest, including
the camp commander.
Dr. Malum Bey, currently the head doctor in a
hospital in Anatolia, and
Emin Efendi, a sergeant in Camp 5 from
Konya, were aware that this camp commander took two prayer
rugs as
a bribe from the battalion cleric and used the cleric’s regiment and
battalion number for other similar purposes.
In summary, events up until my departure from
Heliopolis transpired
in this way. Release and the related bribery incidents
complemented
one another. Our
unfortunate soldiers who had no money were left
behind and even some who had
transport numbers in hand were denied
repatriation because of this corruption.
Request and Apology
This memoir of captivity was written in simple
language and is certainly
no literary work. But my aim was to describe the
oppression I suffered
for nine months and six days in Aleppo and Egypt and the
incidents I
witnessed, recorded on top of cigarette papers that I was able to
preserve
despite many searches and raids.
So now I am able to present this
memoir to my co-religionists with
pleasure. I ask that my readers forgive
any errors they may find in the text.
Eyüb Sabri, former official of Gaziantep’s Revenue
Registry
Eyüb Sabri Bey
//END of PART ELEVEN/FINAL//
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder