Turkiye prison associated with torture to be converted to museum after 42 years

A Turkish prison, notorious for torture in the 80s, will be converted into a museum.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to inaugurate the museum located in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakir.

The abandoned prison facility was transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism so that it could be converted into a museum.

In the fall of 1980, the building was taken over by the military administration ruling the country at the time and named the Martial Law Military Prison.

Following the coup on 12 September 1980, the prison became the emblem of horror and torture that the regime inflicted on dissidents.

The prison has been the subject of numerous films and publications.

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Bayram Bozyel, a politician and writer, said he spent five years in this prison between 1982 and 1987.

“The coup dictatorship ruled throughout Turkiye at the time. The Diyarbakir prison displayed all of the coup regime’s horrors in their most severe form. At the time, such acts were unheard of,” he said, claiming that many individuals were killed or crippled.

At the prison, Bozyel said, the dignity of human life was violated and the trauma inflicted continues to affect the victims, their families and the society at large.

Abdurrahim Semavi, who spent seven years in the prison, said he was detained when he was only 16.

He said it was important to convert the prison into a museum so that the dark period of history is preserved.