Page 181 - Mastermind: The Truth of the British Deep State Revealed

Adnan Harun Yahya

the pretense of disinfecting them. We hereby ask the premeditators of this

murderous crime, who are the British physicians, the garrison commander and
officers, be declared as criminals... 100

After the motion was read at the Turkish Grand National Assembly,
Mehmet Şeref Bey took the stage and explained the horrible events:

… When the British took prisoners the sons of our nation from Anatolia and

Rumelia, who fought for the dignity and honor of this country, they were di-
rectly transferred to Egypt. They were forced to enter baths that had a spe-
cially formulated, smelly solution up to their necks... When the Turkish sol-

diers didn't want to immerse their heads, British soldiers would come by and
force them in with their bayonets. When the helpless dear ones put their heads

in the solution, both eyes would go blind. This is how the British blinded
15,000 Turks... 101

At the onset of the Turkish War of Independence, the news that the
British deliberately blinded Turkish prisoners of war had been widely cov-
ered by Istanbul and Anatolian media. People of Konya especially reacted very

strongly and a newspaper of Konya, Öğüt covered the news with bold head-

lines.

As a result, a serious anti-British sentiment spread across Anatolia. It
was not long until, upon the orders of the British General Milne, one of the

Allied Powers commanders in Istanbul, Öğüt was forced to stop its news
about the blinded prisoners of war. Not only did they stop this news; the

newspaper was shut down permanently.

This incident drew the attention of Mustafa Kemal, who went to Ankara
to organize the War of Independence. As soon as he found out why Öğüt was

shut down, he sent a telegram to the Konya Governor on behalf of the Rep-
resentative Committee, where he condemned the British pressure and at-

tacks on the Turkish media and said that the development should be strong-
ly protested by a rally. 102

Another source that details the events is Eyüp Sabri Bey's book entitled
Bir Esirin Hatıraları (Memoirs of a Prisoner of War) written in 1922. Eyüp

Sabri Bey was a Gaziantep resident who had previously worked in the Defter-