//Ed. note: Minister for Public Security Nazım Paşa
finally reveals the reason for Ebüzziya Tevfik's
arrest - a diabolical "jurnal" sent to the Sultan to
get him jailed or exiled so a lawyer could reap
a court award in Egypt intended for Ebüzziya
Tevfik.//
Learning
the Reason for My Arrest
It was now five-thirty and sunset was
advancing so the document
examination was halted. Muharrem Efendi, Fuad Bay and a senior
policeman named Mehmed Ali Efendi locked the door and gave the
key to the head
policeman as they left. Only myself, the
Minister
and Hüseyin Daim Bey remained at the residence and we all went to
the
garden for a break.
I was impatient to bring up the subject of
the reason for my arrest and
search but thought better of it, given the
Minister’s vague response to
this question earlier in the day. However, the Minister seemed to have
that
look on his face that people have when they are inclined to reveal
a
secret. I was confused. Yet, I got the strong impression that the
Minister was waiting for me to ask. At
this point, Hüseyin Daim Bey,
who was quite a bright young man and knew the
Minister’s temperament
well, broached the question himself to Nazım Paşa,
perhaps based on a
prearranged signal between the two of them but unknown to
me. He
said: “Why don’t you tell him the
reason for his arrest. He’s probably
very curious.” I, though, pretended to
be indifferent about it and said I
wasn’t at all curious because during the day
they had assured me that I
would be told.
Now, I was concerned that I would be upset when I
found out and I didn’t
want to spoil the bonhomie among us as we sat
in the garden. The examination of my documents would
conclude
tomorrow, anyway.
However, Hüseyin Daim Bey explained that
while the examination
would finish here tomorrow, on Friday they would look at
the papers in
my print shop, which he said were the most important ones. This
surprised me because since I always
expected that both my home and
my print shop were likely to be searched at some
point, I would never
leave anything that needed safekeeping at either
place. I added that it
would have been
better for them to have searched the print shop first.
That way this travail could have been ended
sooner.
At this point, Nazım Paşa broke his
silence and said to me: “Have you
seen Gergur Efendi lately?” In response, I said: “Yes! A week before I
was arrested he came to my print shop in the morning. I had asked him
the day before to come in
connection with a matter in Egypt. In
this
regard, I had filed a motion with the “Mixed Tribunal” there concerning
money owed to me by Prince İbrahim Paşa.
Since a quarter of the
Prince’s salary had been deducted by the court, I
was obliged to either
personally or through an appointed surrogate file a proof
with the court
by the 24th of October, through the good offices of our Justice
Ministry.
Since Gergur Efendi knows both
Arabic and French I invited him to do
the job.
We agreed on a fee and went to Beyoğlu together to see
Abduallah Nama
Efendi, a notary. We took care of the
necessary
paperwork and then went to a nearby beerhouse for lunch.”
Minister: “did you talk about anything
else?”
Me: “No! We just discussed the details of
this matter of mine. We
talked about
nothing else.”
Minister: “Did you show him documents at
the print shop related to
this matter?
In other words, might Gergur Efendi have seen some
other documents in
the print shop while he was there?”
Me:
“A year ago I had sent my son to Egypt for a vacation and I had
him take all
the relevant documents to the Prince at that time. The case
is built on these documents so they
all went to the ‘Mixed Tribunal’.
There
wasn’t anything else left to show to Gergur Efendi.”
Me: As I have said, there was nothing to
show him.
Minister:
At that time, you didn’t open any drawers or document
cabinets
containing things he could see?
Me: No, while Gergur was there I did not
touch any drawer or
cabinets containing my documents.
Minister: I find that strange!
Me. Why?
Minister: You opened a drawer and showed
him correspondence
between you and a mischevous group from Cebel-i Lübnan
((Lebanon))
now in London. There were about twenty
letters.
This mischevous group is going
to publish a newspaper in Arabic
and Turkish that they have established with 80,000
liras of capital.
You were going to
transcribe the letters in texts and send them back
to the group. You are their singular correspondant here and
they
opened a 2,000 lira line of credit in your name. You were responsible
for obtaining the requisite
letter-types and printing equipment for the
group.
This is the summary of the “journal” ((incriminating
letter)) about you,
the author of which stipulated that he will not meet face
to face with you.
He assured us that “if
his home and print shop are raided immediately,
then you will find these
documents.” Right away I judged this to
be an
invention, because there is no indication that there is any connection
between you and this Lebanese group that has gone to Europe.
Secondly, even if some group wanted to obtain
letter-type for a
publication in London they wouldn’t need to get this printing
equipment from you, since such equipment is readily available in
London.
When I read the memorandum with this
attached “journal” about the
need to raid your home and print shop for
documents, I was not at all
concerned. But
I couldn’t figure out the writer’s motive, although there
certainly must be
one. It seems to me that the payoff for
the writer
must be quite substantial,
not just a promotion in rank or a medal of
some sort. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made such
eye-catching, albeit
bizarre, slanders about you.
Me: (As the Minister was speaking I
realized what the “journal” writer’s
motive was and said): One must really look
at Gergur’s “journal” with a
devilish eye, because he was going to get 770 lira
from me anyway. I am
owed 400 English
lira by Prince İbrahim and another 370 English lira in
accumulated interest
since I filed the lawsuit. I signed an
agreement
with Gergur whereby he would represent me in the court and get 170
lira
of this money. The agreement is in
my wallet, which the head policeman
took from me yesterday.
With this “journal” of his, Gergur wanted
to get me arrested and,
knowing that no such incriminating documents would be
discovered, he
figured that the Sultan would nevertheless be quite suspicious
and anxious
about me and have me either jailed here or exiled. Then, on the 24th of
October at the “Mixed
Tribunal” court hearing in Egypt, as my
representative he would take the money
awarded to me by the court.
After
remaining in Egypt for a while to make sure that Iwas out of the
picture, he
would comfortably deposit the money for himself. If I was
somehow rescued from my jailing or
exile, he would feed me a story and
give me half of the money. This is why he wrote the “journal”.
I am grateful to you for telling me about this. I’ll be able to get a good
night’s sleep
tonight and first thing in the morning I’ll void my agreement
with Gergur for
him to act as my representative. In his
place I’ll appoint
Mr. Cartondubyar. He
is the lawyer for Princess Nazılı, who prompted
me to file the lawsuit in the
first place. Also in the morning, I will write
a memorandum
to you about all of this, stating that this whole affair must
be judged as an
invention or Gergur.
Minister:
Good for you! I have no doubt that this scoundrel embarked
on this
adventure with this aim in his mind. But
let’s not let Hüseyin
Hüsnü Efedini know about any of this.
Me: You can be sure of that. I don’t want to betray your trust nor do I
want to get myself into trouble.
At the end of this discussion, which
lasted for about an hour, the
Minister told me that he had had a bedroom made
ready for me in the
residence. After he
departed for his harem, Hüseyin Daim and I went
to eat in the dining room. The next morning, as soon as I woke up I
wrote the memorandum and gave it to the Minister when he emerged
from the
harem.
Right away, he had his aide take the
memorandum to the “Mabeyin”
((Sultan’s private apartments)) because for a
person like myself who
had been arrested by an “irade-i seniye” ((Sultan’s
decree)), voiding
a representative agreement and appointing a new one in Egypt
could
invite suspicion, so this was certainly for my benefit.
Two hours later a reply came with the
words “no harm shall come to
the law”, allowing me to appoint Mr. Cartondubyar
as my new
representative. So the same day I wrote a new power of attorney for
Mr. Cartondubyar arranged via the Ministry of Justice and sent to the
“Esteban
Efendi Mansion”, after which Nazım Paşa had the requisite
approvals obtained
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Next,
Nazım
Paşa’s aide took the memorandum I wrote to Gergur, voiding his
power of
attorney, to him at his residence at Gedik Paşa and the signed
receipt was
retuned to me.
