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SEYH CEMAL
TALAY
Father's Name : Cimsid
Mother's name : Fatma
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1901
The Russians were providing weapons for the Armenian bandits.
With military assistance of Russia and encouragement of England,
France and the United States -all had consulates in Van- Armenians
increased their hostilities in the beginning of 1915. The
Russians were secretly providing them weapons hidden in food
supplies, which they sent to Russia through the port of Trabzon.
Those supplies were transported by caravans to Van. The goods
on the caravans were distributed in the centre of the old
city, and the hidden ammunition was secretly distributed to
the Armenian militants. The leader of the Armenian revolt
in Van was Aram Pasha. But I don't remember the name of the
Dashnaks’ leader. They all had land claims, especially in
Van. The 11th squadron was assigned to Van, but
went to Erzurum to be mobilised. The Armenian bandits increased
their activities and started their terrorist campaigns against
the Muslim inhabitants.
The militants were raiding the Muslim villages and neighbourhoods.
The only thing we had to fight them with was a militia led
by Imam Osman, composed of those either too old or too young
to join the army.
Let me tell you a story which I will never forget. I went
to a school located near the government mansion. Armenian
children also studied at the same school. Some of the students
in the Armenian underground went to get a Muslim student named
Rustu from his home with an excuse of studying. They took
him to the Isitma bridge near the industrial park. After insulting
him, they raped and killed him, leaving his body for his family
to find the next day. The family later composed a ballad to
honour his memory.
I can remember the beginning of the skirmishes between the
Muslims and Armenians. Our militia, which would meet in the
Mahmut Aga barracks across the street from the Van State Hospital,
was on duty, a day before the war with the Armenians started.
The Armenians prepared the night before and positioned themselves.
They dug holes in the State Mansion, and when our militia
was preparing for morning prayer at a fountain nearby, the
Armenians showered them with bullets. Many of our soldiers
were killed. The fighting between local Muslims and Armenians
began. There was a big confusion in the streets from both
sides. Despite this, we got up and went to school. We had
two teachers, one from Salonica, one from Edirne. They said
"Come on kids, let's all forgive each other, we might
not see each other again" and suggested we use the side
streets to avoid Armenian bullets. I left school with some
friends, but decided to take our regular route. We saw that
weapons and ammunition were being distributed in front of
a storage area for protection against the Armenians. We then
noticed a few Armenians creeping up from behind, and notified
the man distributing the weapons. He threw them down in his
hand and fired on them, and they ran away.
The war started on April 2 and 3 in 1915. In 1914, the Russians
were not able to penetrate the front line, but they surrounded
our soldiers from behind by passing Caldiran-Bahcesaray, and
established headquarters in the Molla Hasan village.
It was difficult to provide our soldiers with military supplies
since the young students and elderly people carrying the equipment
could not go further because of the cold weather. Many of
them died.
We couldn't go anywhere. But in the spring the Armenians went
completely crazy. On May 10, 1915, the Russians were moving
towards Van. With Governor Cevdet's orders we evacuated Van,
taking with us what we could carry. During the war, Armenian
brutality reached a stage that no one, including the old,
sick, captive, women or children could escape. The atrocities
reached the degree that even the Armenians' main supporters,
the Russians, were trying to prohibit their actions.
My grandmother Mihri couldn't flee with us because one of
my uncles was paralysed from the waist down. Unable to speak
because of the shock of what happened in our absence, she
later learned to speak by sign in order to explain what happened.
They shaved my uncle's moustache along with his flesh, and
then took them to a house which they used as a detention centre
and tortured him and the other captives until the Russians
arrived.
When we became refugees there were 23 members of our family.
We lost most of our family on the road to Bitlis and Urfa.
Only two of us returned to Van. Our first stop on the road
was Bitlis where we arrived in eleven days, and then went
to Siirt, where we had relatives with whom we stayed for
a few months. When we heard about the Russian advance, we
again fled to Diyarbakir. Our convoy consisted of 250 people.
We suffered from hunger and thirst on the way. We went through
Kurtalan and Diyarbakir and the village of Kebir, where we
did not stay long, and again took the road to return to Van.
When we reached Kurtalan, we learned that the Russians had
entered Van again and went to Siirt. In the spring of 1916,
we went to Baghdad, but fled to Mardin when the English Army
advanced. In 1917, we arrived to Urfa. The French who entered
Urfa started tormenting the Muslims by bringing the Armenian
of Aleppo to the city. This time we fought for twenty-two
days.
We left Van in 1915. When we were finally able to return,
only two people remained from the 23-membered family. Van
was totally destroyed. The Armenians burned and demolished
everything except for the Armenian houses. In fact, when the
Turkish army entered Van, around 2.000 Armenian artisans,
expecting retaliation for their repression of the Turkish
population, sought refuge on the island of Adir. The Turkish
government instead ensured their safe passage to Revan.
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