GAROD BOOKS

Rafael de Nogales,
Four Years Beneath the Crescent

Rafael de Nogales, Four Years Beneath the Crescent, (originally printed in 1926), (London: Sterndale Classics) 2003, 356 pp., illust., index, ISBN 1-903656-19-2, paper, UK£18.00 / US$27.00

This work is one of the most incredible accounts of WWI by a former officer of the Ottoman Army. Rafael de Nogales was a Venezuelian mercenary who fought against Russians on the Caucasian and Persian fronts, as well as British armies in Iraq and Palestine. He gives insights into the general Ottoman war effort, relations between Turkish and German allies, and much more. In May 1915 Nogales commanded Ottoman artillery batteries bombarding Armenians besieged in the city of Van. The Armenian issue had a great impact on him, as he witnessed the slaughter of thousands in Van, Bitlis, Siirt and other parts of Ottoman Turkey. Although an anti-Armenian, Nogales' memoirs nevertheless provide invaluable insights into the genocide of Armenians in 1915. His work should be read alongside Grace Knapp's The Tragedy of Bitlis, Clarence Ussher's An American Physician in Turkey, as well as Henry Morgenthau's Ambassador Morgenthau's Story.