Camp for Turkish prisoners of war on the island of Nargen

Creation

At the end of December 1914, the Russian Caucasian army defeated the 3rd Army of the Ottoman Empire near Sarykamysh and captured about 15 thousand prisoners who were brought to Samara ^[3] . However, Samara was soon overcrowded so much that it had to be “closed” for two weeks ^[4] . The typhoid epidemic also began, in connection with which, along the entire route, “filtration camps” began to be created. Some Turkish prisoners of war were sent to such remote military districts as the Amur and Irkutsk . Mortality among the lower ranks increased due to incarceration. Soon it was decided to create an observational point near the Caucasus Front . In this regard, the Supreme Chief of the sanitary and evacuation unit, Prince A.P. Oldenburgsky, on January 27 ( February 4 ), 1915, cabled Rear Admiral E.V. Klupfel , the head of the Baku garrison:

Could you tell me the islands in the Caspian Sea where it would be convenient to arrange several thousand rebellious Muslims who were deported from places of permanent residence or captured Turks. [four]

Although Nargen was originally intended to become a permanent residence of certain categories of prisoners on the basis of ethnicity, later on the island contained peaceful Turkish citizens, citizens of Russia and Persia (ethnic Turks ), as well as a number of German and Austrian prisoners, the number of which in 1917 it had already reached 1 thousand ^[4] .

Nevertheless, the placement of Turkish prisoners of war in the Caucasus worried the tsarist government. The reason for this was the religious and ethnic affinity of the Tatar ( Azerbaijani ) population of the region. Local residents were worried about the plight of Turkish prisoners of war, and despite being subjects of the Russian Empire, they did not want the Ottoman Empire to lose in the war. In this regard, the government tried to choose the most remote place for the prisoner of war camp. For this purpose, the island of Nargen was suitable, where previously convicts of especially serious cases were held ^[5] .

In addition to Nargen, other islands in the Caspian Sea were also considered as an option for keeping prisoners, however, due to Nargen's proximity to Baku and its relatively large size, Oldenburgsky chose this island. In the choice of Nargen, he was supported by Admiral Klupfel and the Baku mayor, Colonel P. I. Martynov ^[4] . On February 12, General EI Bernov , a representative of the Supreme Head of the sanitary and evacuation unit at the headquarters of the Caucasian Front, examined the island and considered it the best due to its close proximity to Baku ^[6] .

Nargen was handed over to the prince of Oldenburg. Unlike other places of detention of prisoners of war, Nargen became the only place that was subordinate to the Supreme Head of the sanitary and evacuation unit Prince of Oldenburg ^[3] . Local Azerbaijanis, residents of Baku, called the island "Asra-i Karbala", "Makber", and due to the fact that there were many snakes on the island - and "Island of Snakes" ^[5] .

The prisoners delivered to Baku were initially held in a building owned by Baku millionaire Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev . The conditions here were better than in other places of stay of Turkish prisoners in Russia ^[7] .

Camp Infrastructure

Work on the construction of barracks was started by Colonel A.I. Saburov, sent to Baku by the Guard . On February 7, 1915, Oldenburgsky asked Klupfel to assist Saburov by instructing that, before the construction of the barracks, the convoy be placed in Hessian tents , and the Turks in yurts . On February 22, Colonel of the 117th Infantry Regiment of the Yaroslavl Regiment A.V. Poltoratsky, assigned to Admiral E.V. Klupfel, was appointed commandant of the island, who was sent to Nargen at the request of the Prince of Oldenburg. Saburov until mid-June, when construction work was mostly completed, was also the head of the island. Providing transport links with the island was entrusted to Klüpfel. In late February, civil engineer Khanyttov, senior auditor of the Baku Control Chamber, was appointed to control the work. Under Nargen, the Baku medical observation station, located on the Zych Peninsula, was led by a doctor A. A. Rodionov ^[6] .

As soon as Saburov arrived at the place, it turned out that even before the war, engineer Baghdasaryan rented a section of the island to search for oil. On February 9, 1915, Baghdasaryan was extended for two years by the start of work, and by February 13, the issue of transferring the island was resolved. Nevertheless, on February 10, Oldenburgsky telegraphed to Saburov that it was necessary to begin the necessary work. On February 19, Oldenburgsky himself arrived at Nargen. The Baku Treasury Chamber opened a loan of 50,000 rubles ^[8] . However, some residents of Baku were against the neighborhood with the captured Turks. So, in mid-February, representatives of the Nobel family turned to the Maritime Department, complaining of the danger of an epidemic and a decrease in oil production, which Oldenburgsky ignored ^[9] .

In the second half of February 1915, work began on the construction of the camp. On February 27, A. I. Saburov informed Bernov (to whom he also obeyed) that for the acceptance of 4 thousand prisoners, the buildings would be ready in a week, asking them not to place prisoners until the work was completed, so as not to infect the workers. However, by the end of March, there were already 208 prisoners on the island (5 doctors, 5 officers and 198 lower ranks), and by April 19 - 611 ^[9] .

By March 11, 1915, 13 huts, 1 hospital hut and 4 kitchens for 2,500 people, a stable, a warehouse, a shop, a water pump and 4 fresh water tanks for 4,800 buckets were built. However, the quality of the buildings was low. So, on March 1 and 9 there were storms that knocked down 6 barracks under construction, one tent, and also smashed an unloaded barge. On April 19, Saburov reported that the camp could additionally receive 3,600 prisoners ^[9] .

By early May, the main work was already completed. In total, there were two barracks for administration and employees, 4 hospital barracks, 18 prison barracks, 6 kitchens, a bakery, 3 warehouses, a bench, a bathhouse, a stoker room, a laundry room, a machine building, a water pump, a forge, a concrete seawater tank, a stable, 4 tanks for fresh water, interlayers and awnings for firefighters tools, a temporary marina of 30 fathoms, a telephone, a power station, as well as plumbing and sewer pipes. By this time, 103,949 rubles had already been spent, and to complete the work, Saburov requested another 21,508 ^[9] . Finally, all the work, including wiring a telephone cable and electric lighting, was completed only on June 18. According to the final report of Saburov, of the allocated 140,000 rubles, 130,411 rubles were spent 35 kopecks, the remaining funds were transferred to the commandant of Nargen, of which 7 thousand were paid for connecting the Nargen and the Zykh Peninsula with an underwater cable ^[10] .

According to the historian K.A. Pakhalyuk, water supply and sewage probably meant work related to the organization of the work of a water pump that took water from the sea. When in March 1916, Admiral Klupfel raised the question of creating a real sewer, Oldenburgsky answered:

At the beginning of 1916, General Shavrov was sent to the island, who telegraphed on January 14, 1916, that Nargen was ready to receive 2 thousand prisoners. The work went quickly using the labor of prisoners of war. On January 18, Bernov reported that all the barracks were insulated, furnaces were installed and lighting was provided, and devices for chlorinating water were created. Back in December, the Tiflis Botanical Garden began planting 14 thousand dry-loving plants, as Pakhalyuk suggests, to deal with winds. The landing ended in mid-March. Having examined the island of Klupfel on February 11, he reported that the camp could accommodate another 3 thousand people ^[11] .

Due to the influx of prisoners after the victory at Erzurum, there was a need to build new barracks for 2 thousand places. On March 27, 1916, the head of the Caucasian Military District S.V. Volsky asked Oldenburgsky to allow a new type of barracks. In April, it was decided to install a desalination plant. The work was completed by May 6, and by the end of the month the desalination plant gave about 100 buckets per hour. This was not enough, and by the beginning of July a new desalination plant was installed, giving about 2500 buckets per day. Later, a second boiler was delivered, which by mid-September gave about 5 thousand buckets per day. Nevertheless, even after the launch of the second boiler, water was brought on the longboats ^[12] .

By the end of 1916, in addition to new barracks that could accommodate 10 thousand people, and taking into account hospital barracks - up to 11 500, a large church, a bathhouse, a laundry, premises for an electric station and a water pump, a bakery, and a desalination refrigerator were built. Electrical lighting wiring across the island was completed. Tailoring and shoe workshops functioned ^[13] .

Despite the fact that by October 1918 there were no Turkish prisoners of war on the island, the camp itself continued to exist. The new authorities used its infrastructure for its intended purpose. So, during the Civil War, a concentration camp was located here, and in the 1930s, victims of political repressions were shot on Nargen ^[14] .

Medical Support

At the end of March 1915, Saburov reported on the construction of two barracks and two huts on the Zykh Peninsula, in connection with which the medical observation station in Zykh could accept 80 patients and 250 healthy prisoners. However, additional medical personnel did not arrive and quarantine work began with the active use of Turkish prisoner doctors. From April 3 to 10, 85 prisoners were under observation, 16 of which, having passed quarantine, were sent to Nargen ^[10] .

Before sending the captured Turks to the island, they were first examined by a doctor, Melik-Pashayev, in the hospitals of Baku and at the evacuation center, together with the residents of these institutions, to find out the state of their health. Groups of unhealthy prisoners went to Zykh, where they washed in the bathhouse, receiving the necessary medical care, and their belongings were disinfected. After that, the prisoners were observed for some time and only after that they went to Nargen. Prisoners who did not have any contagious diseases were sent directly from Baku to the island. At Nargen itself, five captive doctors provided medical assistance to the prisoners, with five paramedics, two sisters of mercy, and eight orderlies ^[15] .

According to Saburov’s separation of powers scheme presented on April 12, 1915, the Baku station itself was responsible for bathing, disinfection, first dressing and observation, and the personnel of the special hospital were directly responsible for the treatment. On April 19, the Russian Red Cross Society provided hospital equipment. On May 13, the 398th reserve field hospital arrived, replaced in the summer with a local infirmary ^[15] . On May 17, Bernov arrived on Zykh with an inspection, who remained dissatisfied with the sanitary condition of the quarantine, and therefore ordered that the observational point be subordinated to the commandant of the island of Nargen.

In practice, there was no separation of duties, and most of the expenses for the material supply of medical institutions were carried out by the Baku station ^[16] .

On June 1, 1915, there were already 625 prisoners in Zykh, and in June-July the flow of Turkish soldiers evacuated sharply ^[17] .

Transport Link

Admiral Klüpfel, who is responsible for transport, identified three vessels: the old Bailov steam-boat, the Sofia sailing ship, and the Shahherestan schooner ^[16] . On April 24, 1915, Colonel Saburov wrote to Bernov:

For some time, the ships of Prince Benckendorf were used, but soon this assistance ceased, due to the fact that new oil fields were discovered in one of the sections of Benkendorf. After reporting to Saburov, Klupfel sent two motor-sailing bots, Kara-Sengir and Kara-Dashly ^[19] .

Nevertheless, the commanders of the new bots, which were subordinate to the military port, did not comply with the orders of commandant Nargen, without leaving the sea at high winds, refusing to take objects that could stain the deck (for example, oil tanks). On May 23, 1915, the Bailov longboat was replaced by the Krasnovodsk longboat, the repair of which was not completed, and in June the longboat ceased to serve Nargen for technical reasons. Thus, the whole of 1915 there was a lack of transport ^[19] .

Placing prisoners and their position in the camp

By July 23, 1915, 3,761 prisoners were stationed in the camp, 118 of which were officers. Most of the prisoners held in the camp were prisoners of war of the Turkish army, who were Turks and Kurds of ethnicity. Among the representatives of other nationalities among the military were: Armenians (one chief officer, two doctors and 169 lower ranks), Albanians (one chief officer), Greeks (two doctors and 47 lower ranks), Arabs (one chief officer and 150 lower ranks), Adzharians (one lower rank) and Circassians (24 lower ranks). There were also 16 representatives of the Austro-Hungarian army on the island, among them one chief officer ( Czech ), one chief officer Austrian , one lower rank (Austrian), five Jewish doctors, one Polish pharmacist and one Jewish pharmacist, as well as six medical students (three Austrian Germans, one Pole, one Jew and one Magyar ). In addition to prisoners of war, the camp also contained interned civilians: 745 Turkish citizens (682 Turks, 54 Kurds, eight Armenians and one Greek), 45 citizens of Persia (31 Tatars, 12 Kurds and two Armenians), 76 Russian citizens (49 Turks and 27 Kurds), as well as one subject of Germany and one of Austria-Hungary ^[17] .

The commandant of the island, Colonel Poltoratsky, established a fairly free regime of residence. Inside the camp, lower ranks and officers lived in different huts. In one of the tents in June, an officer meeting was even organized. Informants were recruited from among ethnic minorities. Officers and doctors (regardless of ethnicity) could, according to dismissal notes, sometimes leave for the city for several days, while the lower ranks were accompanied by a convoy. At the same time, accounting was not kept, and upon returning no one examined the prisoners ^[20] .

Many residents of the city sympathized with the prisoners, in a number of shops they were selling products at a discount. Due to ethnic and religious affinity (between the Tatar ( Azerbaijani ) population of the city and the Turks), contacts developed. The Baku Muslim charity, represented by its representative Sona Khanum Gadzhieva, brought food and various gifts to the island ^[20] . So, in one document of August 1915 it was noted:

Among the sympathetic prisoners were Baku millionaires Ismail-bey Safaraliev, Murtuza Mukhtarov and Azhdar-bey Ashurbekov ^[20] .

On August 13, 1915, Lieutenant Velikoselsky was temporarily appointed commandant of Nargen, and on August 24 Lieutenant Colonel M. M. Khalilov became commandant. At this time, there were 3,955 prisoners, 219 of whom were officers and doctors. By the end of September, officers, except those in quarantine or in hospitals, were expelled to the inner provinces. By October 18, 2,869 prisoners remained in the camp, by November 1 - 2,631, and by November 23 - 2,563. Pakhalyuk believes that at that time Nargen had already ceased to act solely as a place of permanent placement, and prisoners of war were sent to work ^{[ 21]} .

In mid-October 1915, commandant Khalilov began to have heart problems, in connection with which he was forced to spend the night in Baku. Oldenburgsky was dissatisfied with this, and Khalilov was removed from office. Captain Zilov was appointed commandant of the island ^[22] .

Because of the onset of cold weather, there was a threat to the life of prisoners of war, in connection with which, on December 15, 1915, the head of the Caucasian military district, General S.V. Volsky, ordered the hasty sending of prisoners of war to the borders of the Moscow military district . By the beginning of 1916, the camp was practically disbanded ^[22] .

After the victory at Erzurum , new prisoners began to arrive at the camp. As early as March 14, 1916, Bernov reported that medical support was low due to improper evacuation of prisoners from the theater of operations. In this regard, Bernov forbade both the sending of prisoners of war to work from the island, and the placement of new Turks on it. At that time, 4,500 people were already on Nargen ^[11] .

On the whole, for the whole of 1916, 18,028 prisoners arrived at the camp , a significant part of which were later sent to work. On August 9, 400 Turkish prisoners of war with disabilities were transferred to the island for subsequent exchange on the basis of agreements with the Turkish government ^[13] .

After the February Revolution of 1917, the Caucasian army ceased active hostilities, and the flow of new prisoners of war stopped . Some prisoners throughout Russia, under the influence of revolutionary events, refused to work, because of which they were expelled to Nargen. Pakhalyuk believes that precisely because of this, by June 10, up to 1,000 Austrians and Germans were on the island ^[13] . Due to the growing state crisis during this period, the situation of captured officers and soldiers worsened ^[23] . So, in the report of the commandant of the island to the chief of staff of the Caucasian military district of May 15, 1917 it was said:

By the autumn of 1917, from 6 to 7 thousand prisoners of war were in the camp ^[25] . Answering the questions of the representative of the Red Cross Alexandrov, he was asked by Dr. N. Narimanov, who was visiting the island at that time, in order to familiarize himself with his proposals regarding prisoners, Narimanov said:

After the October Revolution, the Soviet government put on the agenda the exchange of prisoners. However, on January 1, 1918, the commander of the Caucasus Front, General E.V. Lebedinsky wrote to the Transcaucasian Commissariat that the release of soldiers and officers could lead to even more destabilization of the situation in the region, due to the fact that most of the prisoners were taken from the 3rd Turkish army formed in the border areas. Meanwhile, prisoners of war were sent to the island from other areas. So, on March 10, they decided to send a batch of Turks under the protection of a convoy from the Armenian Corps from Bashkadiklar to Tiflis , and from there, under the protection of the Muslim corps, to Nargen. On March 25, 1918, 78 officers and 7 thousand soldiers were held on Nargen and Zikh ^[23] .

A number of prisoners later took an active part in the outbreak of the Civil War . According to Pakhalyuk, after the Caucasian Islamic Army entered Baku in the fall of 1918, the history of Turkish captivity on Nargen ended ^[23] .

The position of prisoners of war themselves differed depending on time, and therefore can hardly be evaluated in such primitive categories as “good / bad” or “satisfactory / unsatisfactory”. Available data reject the notion of high mortality (at least until the February Revolution), and also allow you to adjust the total number of prisoners. In the years 1915-1916, about 20 thousand prisoners passed through Nargen (taking into account 1917-1918 this figure can be increased to 25 thousand), which makes it one of the key prison institutions in Russia . It is important to emphasize: we are talking not only about the prisoners of war of the Turkish army (as well as the Austro-Hungarian), but also about the interned citizens of Russian, Persian and Turkish citizenship ^[27] .

As early as the spring of 1915, individual cases of typhus were recorded along with new consignments of prisoners arriving in quarantine ^[21] . In July, the wife of commandant Poltoratsky, who was on Nargen with him, fell ill with typhoid fever . On August 19, 1915, acute intestinal diseases of the Asian type began on the island. Until October 5, 60 died, 48 recovered, and another 20 were in hospitals. To combat the epidemic, measures were taken such as supplying boiled water and white bread, a ban on bathing, and disinfection of premises with formalin, fuel oil, and lime. And although in October the typhoid epidemic declined, cholera began to spread ^[22] .

Having visited the island of Oldenburg in mid-December 1915, he found the condition of the camp “lower than mediocre” and temporarily prohibited the sending of prisoners of war to the internal areas until the disinfection situation improves. Nevertheless, his order was not executed ^[22] .

Outbreaks of typhoid were also recorded in March-April 1916 ^[28] . March 21, Bernov conducted an inspection of the island and remained unsatisfied with the sanitary condition. In a telegram dated March 23, Oldenburgsky wrote:

March 25, 1916 already received news of the cessation of mass diseases ^[12] . However, by May, cholera began again in the camp, the first case of which was recorded on April 28. According to Professor Ushinsky’s health report, 26 people died before May 11, then another 10 from May 11 to 18, and although acute gastric diseases with a fatal outcome were earlier, they were mistaken for dysentery . By the end of May 1916, due to vaccinations, cholera retreated ^[28] .

In May 1916, a special commission was created under the chairmanship of Admiral Klupfel, who, by mid-June, had prepared a list of preventive measures against cholera, some of which were approved ^[28] .

At the end of August 1916, in connection with the arrival of new prisoners, another outbreak of typhoid and cholera diseases began. A total of 14 typhoid and 24 cholera patients were quarantined on Zykh, as well as in specially created quarantine barracks on Nargen. By September 16, 14 people had died from both diseases. The situation stabilized only by the end of the year. Bernov, who visited the island on November 7, 1916, found the state of the sanitary unit safe ^[13] .

In the fall of 1917, the island was visited by a doctor, Nariman Narimanov , who wrote in a memorandum sent to the Baku City Duma that 40-45 people die from typhus and other diseases on the island every day. The main reason for the death of prisoners of war was the lack of water and food ^[25]

At the beginning of August 1915, 8 Turkish officers fled from Nargen. So, at the end of April 1916, captain Shukri Shaban Bey and ensigns Fekri Shakar and Yusuf Ibrahim left the island according to dismissal notes. A few days later, on July 29, five more officers, captains Suheil Izzet and Ferrat Tursun, lieutenant Yagub Mustafa-oglu, second lieutenant Yusuf Ziya and ensign Huseyn Hilmi, left Nargen. The aim of all the officers was to escape. And despite the fact that it was carried out by two groups of people, Poltoratsky, justifying himself, stated that all 8 officers left the island on July 29, some of them on expired notes ^[29] .

The 3rd company of the 552nd Simbirsk squad guarding the camp at that time was accused by Poltoratsky of lack of discipline and the same day was replaced by the 1st company of the 241st squad. Poltoratsky, who left the camp that day, returned only in the evening of July 30, 1916 and found out that the officers sent to the city were planning an escape. Contacting the head of the gendarme port site, Lt. Col. Meskhiev, Poltoratsky the next day, together with his informants from among the prisoners, went to the city in search of escapees ^[29] . Initially, Poltoratsky did not inform his superiors about the escape, hoping to resolve the problem on his own. Since July 31, departing steamers examined the disguised city with a prisoner of war Albanian named Omar Selim. However, the searches yielded no results ^[30] .

According to the former non-commissioned officer of one of the regiments of the Wild Division , who was imprisoned on the island, Ramazan Khalilov, who was here from June to September 1920 , prisoners of war of the First World War, like the victims of the Bolsheviks, were buried in the eastern part of the island ^[31] .

In 2007, Turkish historians Bingyur Sonmez and Ibrahim Yıldırım excavated on the island of Boyuk-Zira. As a result of excavations, they found the remains of Ottoman army soldiers who were reburied in Turkey at the memorial to the victims of the Battle of Sarykamysh ^[32] .

In December 2015, the head of one of the public organization of the city of Kars, Muharrem Yildiz arrived at Boyuk-Zira, where he laid flowers at the place of mass burial of prisoners of war. Yildiz also took with him to Turkey a handful of land from the island to scatter in the fields of the Sarykamysh battle. In January 2016, Yildiz organized an 8-kilometer procession in the places of the Sarykamysh battle, where the procession participants scattered a handful of land that Yildiz brought from the island of Boyuk-Zira ^[32] .

• Pakhalyuk K. A. Space of captivity of the First World War: a camp for Turkish prisoners on the island of Nargen (1915-1918) // International life. Special issue: The story without cuts. Great War. Start. - M. , 2014 .-- S. 100-128 .
• Dr. Betül Aslan. I. Dünya Savaşı Esnasında Nargin Adası'nda Türk Esirler ( tur .) // A. Ü. Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Dergisi [TAED]. - Erzurum , 2010. - Num. 42 . - S. 283-305 .