The Diyarbakir Prison, infamously known as a torture house, especially in the aftermath of the Sept. 12, 1980 coup d´état, will be closed and turned into an educational complex, the government has announced.

The government is trying to erase the traces of pain and tears of the past as part of the democratization package it announced last month, which aims to answer the long-standing Kurdish question.....

A large number of inmates locked up in the prison after the 1980 coup were subject to atrocious acts of torture. The prison was listed among the 10 most notorious prisons in the world by the British daily the Times. Many of post-1980 inmates never made it out of the prison alive, while dozens of others were maimed for life. The prison was the scene of many an uprising and hunger strike.

Some of the more well-known figures who served time in the prison include Democratic Society Party (DTP) leader Ahmet Türk and former DTP deputies Nurettin Yilmaz, Celal Paydas, Mustafa Çakmak and former mayor Mehdi Zana as well as Kurdish writer and intellectual Orhan Miroglu and poet Yilmaz Odabasi. The father of Kurdish writer Altan Tan, Bedii Tan, lost his life in this prison as a result of torture. ...

Diyarbakir Prison a reason  for PKK´s struggle

Meanwhile, Selahattin Demirtas, head of the DTP´s parliamentary group, also seemed to agree with Tan, saying: “The Diyarbakir Prison, associated with torture, is one of the reasons for the PKK´s existence. The brutality and torture of that prison should be passed on to the next generation as a cautionary monument. It should be turned into a human rights museum. They found this solution because the Provincial National Education Directorate is having problems finding land in the city. This is not part of the Kurdish initiative. But we support it. The Diyarbakir Prison should be emptied, turned into a museum,...

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-......kir-prison-to-become-history.html

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I remember mentioning this prison and how important it has been for our Kurdish problem several times..

I would agree with them that it should be turned into human rights museum..

So turning it into a school sounds like trying to hide and deny what actually happened there. How is this an initiative to resolve the Turkish problem against Kurds?

I think turning it into a memorial so that people will never forget or repeat what happened would be a little more appropriate.  I have to agree with you, cat.

I think it is abit late to hide about what went there years ago..

I really think that that place should be a human rights museum.

It should stay there  to show ´how unhuman can some of the human beings could be´..

And as far as the Kurdish initive is concerned, I am very optimistic and I am planning to write about it soon in either as a column or in the forum.. If I am not wrong, the future of Turkey might be changing with that initive..  

still quoting crap from the kurdish islamic terrorist Fetullah`s newspaper?

any particular proof that those people were tortured for being kurdish? No one got tortured for being kurdish but for being leftist in the 80 coup, and at least 80 percent of those tortured people were not Kurdish but Turkish. so what makes the diyarbakir prison so speacial for your little mind? why is it more important than the sinop prison for example? is it that only Turks were tortured in in Sinop and the west don`t care about what happens to Turks?

as long as there are people like this in turkey, I do not see the future too optimistically...

 No problem for Turkey Kitty.....he isn´t living there! 

you`ve recovered from your visa post embarassment?

Ha ha ha..

Thanks god for that..