Turkish-Greek War Prisoners During the National Strugle Period

This article examines a cross-section of Turkish-Greek relations during the War of Independence. The policies followed by Türkiye and Greece regarding prisoners during this period are revealed. The studies on the subject generally consist of the Greek atrocities in Anatolia and the memories of the prisoners. This study is based on the ATASE, Turkish Red Crescent Archives, the published treaties, protocols and instructions of the period, as well as the newspapers of the period. In the study, answers to questions such as "Was there a prisoner organization during the National Struggle?", "How did Türkiye and Greece treat civilian and prisoners of war?", "How were prisoner procedures carried out?", "How was the exchange of Turkish and Greek prisoners carried out?" were sought. The ATASE Archive contains documents related to all kinds of transactions of Greek prisoners in Anatolia. At the same time, there are also some documents related to Turkish prisoners in Greece. While the organizational and transaction documents related to the prisoners are concentrated in the ATASE Archive, information and documents related to the exchange were collected especially from the Red Crescent Archive and the news published in the Turkish press of the period. Since the members of the Exchange Commission were members of the Red Cross and Turkish Red Crescent, their correspondence was mostly collected in Turkish Red Crescent Archive. The news in the press on the subject was published in line with the information provided by Turkish Red Crescent. On the other hand, some Turkish newspapers sent special correspondents to Greece in order to closely follow the developments in Greece. The newspapers also included the reports of the Red Cross delegations on inspection missions in Anatolia and the statements of Turkish prisoners who returned from captivity. Our study is organized under four main headings. First of all, during the Kuvâ-yı Milliye period, the situation of civilian Turkish prisoners taken unilaterally by the Greeks in Anatolia in the first stages of the occupation was revealed. Then, the prisoner organization established by the Ankara Government, the treatment and the exchange of prisoners are discussed. While these are put forward, they are analyzed in a comparative manner with the practices in Greece.

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