Ağa, Topal Osman

Introduction

Topal Osman Feridunzade Ağa (1883-1923) was the son of Feridun Zade Hacı Mehmet, a local merchant who specialised in the hazelnut trade. Before the war, Osman worked as a boatman and a hazelnut merchant. He then bought a coffee shop in the port of Giresun and became a partner in a large sawmill founded by the local Greek Orthodox community (known as the “Romei” in Greek and the “Rûm” in Turkish). Despite his father paying the exemption fee of 45 golden liras, Osman joined a volunteer unit of around sixty-five men from Giresun during the Second Balkan War. He was wounded in the right leg, leaving him lame and earning him the nickname “Topal” (the lame).

During the First World War

During the last months of 1914, Osman led a local militia that took part in the ill-fated attempt by the Ottoman Special Organisation (Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa) to occupy Batumi. The only available account of his brief presence on this front is extremely derogatory regarding his military abilities and courage.¹ In 1915, he and Ishak Çavuş were paramilitary leaders who played an active role in the massacre and drowning of Armenians at sea in Giresun.²

Following the fall of Trabzon on 17-18 April 1916, Pirselimoğlu Hacı Hamdi Bey (1876-1967), commander of the Harşit front, used Osman and his band to pursue deserters and collect the war tax (tekalif-i harbiye). Osman patrolled the area between Giresun and Karahisar-i Şarki, becoming notorious for his violent methods against Muslims and Christians alike. According to Greek sources, priests and notables were tortured and killed during searches for guns and deserters.

In July 1916, Osman arrested a group of Greek Orthodox and Muslim men who were preparing to leave Giresun by sea, accusing them of spying. He then arrested three wealthy Orthodox merchants, accusing them of colluding with the spies. One of the merchants, Ioannis Deligiorgis (?-1916), died in custody. Osman was subsequently arrested and tried by the Sivas court martial, which sentenced him to several months in prison.

In contrast to the Samsun-Amasya region, which was home to numerous Romei bandits coordinated by the Metropolitan of Amasya, Germanos Karavangelis (1866-1935), the Giresun-Karahisar-i Şarki region was devoid of Romei bandits. For this reason, the Romei in the Giresun-Karahisar-i Şarki region were more vulnerable to extortionists such as Osman, who not only blackmailed them but also transported them illegally to Russia on his boat for a high fee.

After the Armistice

Throughout the First World War, Osman was just one of many paramilitary chieftains in the region. However, his position changed drastically in the early months of 1919 when the local Committee for the Defence of Rights (Müdâfaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti) mandated him to take action against the Rûm guerrillas. During this period, he was also elected mayor of Giresun and prosecuted alongside two local merchants by court martial in Istanbul for war crimes against the Armenians and the Rûm. Osman had a petition filed by the city’s mufti and other notables which claimed (falsely) that the Armenians of Giresun had not been massacred. Furthermore, the Metropolitan of Giresun, Lavrentios [Papadopoulos] (1868-1928), sent a telegram to the Grand Vizier declaring that Osman and the other two accused were not involved in the displacements.³ However, the governor (vali) of Trebizond, Mehmed Galib Bey (1863-1935), wrote that this statement was most likely insincere and that Lavrentios had made it “to gain support among the city’s notables.”⁴

In order to overcome opposition among a significant part of Giresun’s Romei, who aimed to have him removed from his metropolis, Mgr. Lavrentios sought support from the city’s powerful Muslims, including Osman. Contemporary Greek Orthodox witnesses accused Lavrentios of allowing Osman to interfere in the community’s affairs at a time when he could have been removed.

Osman fled Giresun to avoid arrest. In July 1919, the governor of Sivas, Mektubîzade Mehmed Reşit [Ronabar] (1868-1924), submitted a petition for mercy on Osman’s behalf, arguing that the government lacked the necessary forces to confront his paramilitary group.⁵ The argument of state weakness prevailed, and Osman and his men were pardoned. Back in Giresun, Osman sought to punish the Romei whom he held responsible for his prosecution. He also protected Lavrentios against exarch Ioakim [Sigalas] (1881-1965), who had been sent by the Patriarchate. Osman helped Lavrentios to maintain his metropolitan siege at a time when the struggle between his adversaries and proponents had become extremely intense.⁶
In that period, Osman extorted a great amount of wealth from Giresun’s Romei. According to the Governor (mutasarrıf) of Lazistan, Ahmet Faik [Günday] (1884-1967):

Osman Aga killed 10–15 Rûm from Giresun every day, putting them in gunny sacks. He then registered the real estate titles under the names of his men, relatives, or retinue and donated the fees they paid for this to the Committee for the Defence of Rights.⁷

Romei of Giresun filed new complaints against Osman with the British High Commissioner, who then interfered with the government in Istanbul, once again requesting his arrest. However, Osman managed to resist detention by terrorising the governors sent by the Istanbul government and securing support from the nationalist movement, thereby becoming the undisputed master of Giresun.

During the Turkish War of Independence

In late 1920, Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] (1881-1938) asked Osman to provide troops for the Nationalist army. To fulfil this demand, Osman recruited men from other local bands and eliminated the chieftains who were more reluctant. Thus, the Giresun Volunteer Battalion (Giresun Gönüllü Taburu) was formed, with an initial strength of 850 men. Osman also provided 100 men to guard the parliament in Ankara. In 1921, he raised two regiments that participated in the Central Army’s campaign against the Koçgiri rebellion, before turning against the Romei bandits in the Samsun-Amasya region. During the latter operation, Osman and his forces repeatedly massacred Orthodox Christian convoys forcibly displaced by the army. Furthermore, the two Giresun regiments, under the command of Osman and Hüseyin Avni [Arpaslan] (1876-1922), stormed Christian neighbourhoods in Inner Black Sea towns and Christian villages, slaughtering their inhabitants. Ahmet Faik Bey, the then governor of Ordu, recalled:

I saw the convoys of displaced Rûm from Samsun being shot by the escorting soldiers under Hüseyin Avni Bey’s orders. In one night in Havza, 960 non-Muslims were killed, including women and children, after being raped and tortured. In the same night, Osman Aga murdered 1,460 non-Muslims and set fire to the Armenian neighbourhood where around 100 people had taken refuge, causing the Muslim population to revolt.⁸

In 1923, Osman assassinated Ali Şükrü Bey (1884-1923), a Trebizond MP and intellectual who belonged to the parliamentary group opposed to Mustafa Kemal, in Ankara. He was subsequently pursued and killed by the parliamentary guard.

Nikos Sigalas, Institute of Mediterranean Studies, Foundation for Research and Technology — Hellas (FORTH)