War and Captivity: Romanian Pows in Ottoman Pow Camps and Ottoman (Turkish) Pows in Romanian Pow

The paper examines a particular and lesser known dimension of Romania’s participation to First World War, namely the issue of captivity, focusing on the issue of the Romanian prisoners of war held in captivity by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire, and also, examining the situation of the Ottoman POWs, held in Romanian prison camps, during the same period of the Great War. The research is mainly based on archival sources, as well as on various studies, papers, and also memoirs or war journals (some of them re-edited in the context of the Centennial of the WWI) of the former combatants that had survived WWI captivity; the research sheds new light on an omitted issue of the Romanian involvement into WWI, by examining, on a comparison approach, the situation of the Romanian prisoners held in Ottoman prisoner of war camps, and the situation of Ottoman (Turkish) prisoners of war held in various Romanian prisoner of war camps. The comparison will be based on several indicators and factors, starting from the international legislation (at that time) on the rights and duties regarding the POWs status, as perceived, interpreted and applied by the authorities of the two belligerents, and continuing with the context of falling into captivity; the treatment associated with the per se captivity, across the prisoner of war camps, in both countries; the mutual official initiatives and efforts conducted by the two state actors, in order to improve the status of the POWs, including the issue of the appropriate sum of the military payment for the officers, according to their rank; the involvement of international humanitarian and relief organizations such as the International Red Cross (and the International Prisoners of War Agency); the process of repatriation of the former prisoners of war. The rather poor and harsh conditions existing in the POWs camps, particularly at the beginning of the captivity, which were experienced by both sides, hav improved, to some extent, mainly due to the bilateral negotiations (with the help of third party, such as the Royal Legation of Spain in Constantinople), but also due to the involvement of International relief entities, which helped the POWs by offering support (especially regarding their correspondence) and providing food supplies, in order to ameliorate their medical (health) condition.

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