Diyarbakır Prison turns into museum: Erdoğan

DİYARBAKIR

Diyarbakır Prison, which has long been associated with cruelty, torture, and inhumane acts after the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup, turns into a museum, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said visiting the southeastern province on Oct. 23.

“Our justice ministry has completely emptied the prison. As of today, the prison has been transferred from the Justice Ministry to the Culture and Tourism Ministry,” Erdoğan said addressing an opening ceremony of several development projects in Diyarbakır.

Construction of Diyarbakır prison started in 1972 and was then opened as an E-type prison in July 1980, shortly before the Sept. 12’s coup d’état. After the coup, the facility was transferred to military administration and became a martial law military prison.

Between 1981 and 1984, a total of 34 people lost their lives in the prison, which is among the “ten most notorious jails in the world,” according to the British daily The Times. The prison, which has also been the subject of many documentaries and books, was retransferred to the Justice Ministry in 1988 and continued to serve as an E-Type prison.

“Diyarbakır’s color is not terror and political barons. The color of Diyarbakır is the noble people who protect their origins and beliefs. The color of Diyarbakır is not the exploitation of the PKK or the perversion of the HDP,” the president said.

“What we are showing you today is this brotherhood, love and togetherness. No one will be able to tear Diyarbakır from its roots,” he added.

“Let’s raise your star while the ancient cities of this region Damascus, Baghdad and Jerusalem are being destitute,” he said adding that Diyarbakır is “the apple of the eye of this country, this nation.”

The province is one of the most important engines of the goal of a great and powerful Türkiye, he emphasized.

It was the PKK illegal group that harmed the province most, Erdoğan said and called on the voters of Diyarbakır to vote against the group’s affiliates.

“Aren’t these the ones who kidnapped my Kurdish brothers’ children to Qandil [Mountains in Iraq]? Aren’t they the ones who do all kinds of harassment? Are we ready to hold them accountable in the elections to be held in seven months?” he stated.

Citing the former co-chair of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş who has been imprisoned in Edirne prison and current co-chair of the party Mithat Sancar, Erdoğan said, “Does the person currently in Edirne Prison have anything to do with being Kurdish? This man is not Kurdish. But it is exploiting my Kurdish brothers. Won’t my Kurdish brothers ask for this? They currently have a co-chairman. Kurdish? Neither is he. He is also exploiting my Kurdish brothers.”