Remembering the Years of Captivity: Captivity Experience of Ottoman Soldiers in World War I

The Ottoman Empire fought on eight different fronts in the World War I. During the four years of the war, more than two and half million soldiers were recruited in the Ottoman Empire. Also more than two hundred thousand soldiers, which about ten percent of all recruited soldiers, were captured on different fronts. Most of the Ottoman POWs were held in various prison camps in Russia and British Empire. Captivity of war has been remembered as a traumatic event, and bad memoirs took a wide place in diaries. Some memoirs are entirely about life in captivity and returning to the homeland. The intense presence of captivity in the memoirs is due to the fact that this difficult life left deep traces on POWs. The following topics are explained in detail in the diaries and memoirs about life in captivity. Moment of captivity, going to prison camp, living conditions in prison camps, observations of local people and foreign soldires and return home from captivity. Thanks to these personel self-records that go beyond offical documents, it will be possible to draw a detailed picture of the captivity experience of the Ottoman soldiers.