//Ed. note: Eyüb Sabri Bey provides more details
about the POW camp at Zeitoun-Heliopolis, as the
Egyptian rebellion against English rule continued
outside the camp fences.//
Meanwhile, the bewildered English were dreadfully
afraid that this fire
of freedom would spread far and wide. Consequently, they mounted a
stern effort to
quell the tumult but without success.
The Arabs
continued their well-ordered activities and passed out
leaflets about
their programs and goals, posting notices everywhere, including
near
the homes of the English. Most of
those arrested by the English for
these activities managed to escape with the
help of the fighters. In fact,
while a
group of Bedouins were jailed in a camp they removed the wire
fencing and
escaped. Twenty-five of them reached a
10-meter-high
guard tower and threw the soldier on guard down to the ground,
taking
his weapon in the process. The
English were seriously shaken by the
Arabs skill and success. While we were there, the Egyptians even
succeeded in having their representatives who were exiled to Malta
returned. In short, these
co-religionists of ours are worthy of high praise
for the heroism they
showed.
We in the camp became very fond of the Egyptian
newspapers and
El-Efkâr, in
particular. We would have Arabs and those of us who
knew Arabic translate the
articles for distribution to everyone in the
camp. Then, under the guise of religious training,
we would hold
secret conferences in our camp buildings to inculcate these ideas
into
everyone’s consciousness. In this
regard, Hacı Refik Bey, who was a
retired Hicaz policeman who was arrested in
Damascus and brought to
Egypt, and Bursalı Ali Arslan Bey, who was arrested
while working
on the Hicaz railway and brought to Egypt by the English and who
escaped and is currently in Ankara as the depot chief of the ‘dekovil’
(narrow
gauge railroad) there, played key roles.
At about this time, the behavior of the English officers
and the guards
at our camp began to change.
The officer in charge of our camp was
a graying, 60-year-old Jew, who
spoke Turkish well and told us that he
had been to Istanbul and Izmir many
times. And whereas he used to
talk
nonsense to us like “the Turks’ situation is bad, you won’t be able
to keep
Istanbul and the Greeks have taken Izmir.
The future looks
bleak for you.”, anymore he was saying “Mustafa Kemal
is working
hard in Anatolia and all the Turks have taken up arms, following his
orders. The Turks are making great
sacrifices and achieving great
successes.
They will kick the Greeks out of Izmir.
Well done, Turks!”
Similarly, the
English sergeants henceforth greeted us with smiles in
the morning, gave us
good news about Anatolia and in return we
offered them tea and cigarettes. Previously, these same sergeants
were cold
and heartless toward us, but all of a sudden their attitudes
changed. Regarding Mustafa Kemal Paşa, they were now
saying
“You have a great commander in Mustafa Kemal Paşa, who is
establishing a
national organization in Anatolia and achieving great
things. The Turks are showing their national traits
and introducing
themselves to the civilized world. The peace you get will be better
than the one the others get.” They told us they had heard these
things from
their superiors and read about them in the Engish
newspapers.
As a result, we realized that the English were
taking the Kuva-yı
Milliye much more seriously than before. This change was reflected
in their behavior
toward us, previously quite cold and abrasive, but
now much more friendly. With regard to the Armenian prisoners, now
the English wouldn’t give them the time of day.
Similarly, Turks who
went over to the English side during the War and
served as spies for
them in Syria and Palestine, were looked upon as mere
informers and
intriguers now. Those of
us who maintained the pride and honor of our
homeland were welcome to chat with
the English in this new atmosphere.
Constrastingly, the English were especially severe toward the German
prisoners they held.
With this new self-confidence we were able to
express ourselves,
whereas before we were loath to say anything to the English
soldiers
and Armenian or Greek translators.
The success of the Kuva-yı Milliye
in Anatolia, as reflected in what we
were reading in the Egyptian
newspapers, bolstered our honor and pride. Nevertheless, the English
commanders were
wary of our increasing morale and tried to prevent
the Egyptian newspapers from
reaching us, distributing instead a
nonsensical propaganda sheet call “What I
Know”. The English
sergeants were even
given extra money to read this to the prisoners in
the camp. But while the English were hopeful that our
soldiers’ ideas
could be poisoned by this publication, our soldiers knew right
off that
it had been written with a poison pen by our merciless English
enemies,
whom they vigorously cursed for this inauspicious initiative.
In addition, our soldiers’ morale had fallen quite
low, especially because
of the torture and cruelty they saw at the
hospital. Their hopes of
returning home
in one piece were completely dashed as the result of
thousands dying each day
and thousands more losing their eyes, legs
and arms. Those who died at the hospital were brought
to a graveyard
in donkey carts, without any ceremony whatsoever, and dumped one
on
top of the other in a trench. This
being the case, the Moslems, both
living and dead, were being insulted by the
English and most of those
who were blinded,
probably 90%, were likely to lose their lives, too.
Naturally, our soldiers were right to feel
scared by this frightful scene.
However, as explained above, the emergence of the
Kuva-yı Milliye and
its successes, which we were able to convey to our
soldiers, together
with the discussion of the matter of torture and cruelty
being inflicted on
Moslem prisoners in the meetings of the Egyptian people,
served to
gradually ease this horrific treatment toward us. Henceforth, the Moslem
dead in the hospital
were sometimes wrapped in shrouds and although the
method of transport remained
the same, the corpses were now being
buried one by one in separate graves. Also, the ‘eye operations’ suddenly
ceased,
as of that time. All these developments
boosted the morale and
courage of our soldiers.
Our renewed spirits allowed us to appeal to the camp
commander
verbally and in writing to return our money and clothes and send us
back
to our homeland. Nevertheless, we were
certain that the English
would not easily let us go and we knew why they
considered us
important prisoners - because on our documents they listed us as
“committee members” (revolutionaries).
Yet, in light of this, it seemed
strange that they had put us in with
the soldier prisoners. The English
thought this was worse punishment than being held with the other
civilians but
it was better for us. I was keen to
better understand the
English character and by staying with the soldiers I had
a good vantage
point for this aim.
The civilian prisoners taken in the Great War who
were in Turkish
custody received good treatment. Conversely, though, the English
dished out
especially harsh treatment to our civilians and the Moslem
clergymen they
captured. In short, the immoral and
horrific treatment
inflicted by the English officials was contrary to all moral
norms.
They subjected their Moslem
prisoners, and particularly the Turks, to
degradation and abasement like no
other nation would, and they
allowed
their pawns to do the same at the hospital, by letting them
gouge out the eyes
of Turkish soldiers with metal styluses and cut
off their arms and legs.
//END of PART TEN//
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