in Bekir Ağa Prison and the length of his stay are unclear.
He was probably arrested in 1910. In any case, herewith
his description of interrogations in the jail.//
Interrogation Team
This team was active from 1 o'clock at night until morning prayers and
its most important investigations were conducted at night. The team
didn't work much during the day. Although its official work hours were
in the daytime, its 'unofficial' activities occurred at night. Prior to the
start of an investigation, a prisoner would be summoned and questioned
as follows:
"What's your number?" The prisoner would say he didn't know or, out
of fear, say a number like 7 or 8, which was, of course, wrong. The
team would then accuse him of concealing information and put him in
the 'falaka' (feet tied for caning). The number of cane blows was never
less than 50 and the guards inducing them were big brutish Albanians,
who had been captured during an anti-Ottoman insurrection there (1910-
1912) and made to work off their sentences as prison guards.
It wasn't possible to learn anything from those who returned down to
the dungeon after being beaten. I went to the lavatory, where for the
first time I saw my father-in-law, who had been arrested the same day
I was. He showed me his rolled-up sleeves, which exposed his bruised
arms. He gestured to indicate how brutal his interrogation had been,
although there was really no need for any explanation. The sounds of
the clanking chains bore witness to the vortex we had fallen into.
Photo of Şeyhülislam Mustafa Sabri Efendi, taken
in Egypt at the end of his life.
Like everyone else, I was pressured and the most frightening thing
was having a pistol shoved in my mouth. I also suffered from whipping.
'Glasses' Mustafa, Hacı Kemal and teacher Emin Efendi got the worst
of the beatings so they would provide information to have Şeyhülislam
(senior Moslem official in the Ottoman state) Mustafa Sabri Efendi
and Rıza Nur Bey (a leader of the anti-CUP faction) arrested, which
they eventually were on various pretexts.
I heard a sad but comical story about a young fellow named Demokrat
Mustafa, whom they beat repeatedly. The interrogators would ask him
about the 'secret society' and his 'number', which he gave as either 10 or
20 or 40, etc. But any number would have been the wrong one so the
beatings continued. When he gave up some informartion about Dr.
Münir, though, he was spared more beatings. Realizing the self-
preservative value of informing, he thought of a relative named Mustafa
Natık Paşa (an Ottoman army artillery commander), who was then
arrested. The informant youth began to receive special treatment -
coffee, lemonaide, cigarettes.
Kâmil Paşa
Demokrat Mustafa realized that by informing, whether true or not, he
could avoid being beaten. He began to provide made-up information,
even about Kâmil Paşa (a CUP opponent and 4-time prime minister, his
last stint being a 3-month term that ended at the point of a gun wielded
by CUP leader Enver Paşa in January 1913.) Demokrat
Mustafa claimed to have gone to Kâmil Paşa's residence with Mustafa
Natık Paşa to have discussions about the killer of Mahmud Şevket Paşa
(Kâmil Paşa's successor as PM, who was assassinated in June 1913.) -
all lies.
Nevertheless, newspaper stories were written about the imminent arrest
of a 'prominent politician' (Kâmil Paşa) and the jailers were giddy with
the prospect of having evidence of Kâmil Paşa's involvement with the
'secret society' that would put him in jail. In this way, Demokrat Mustafa
avoided further beatings and his involvement with the interrogation team
increased.
//Ed. note: Kâmil Paşa was, in fact, arrested on 28 May
1913, but in relation to the First Balkan War and a plot to
overturn the ruling CUP with British help.//
//END of PART IV//
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