Turkey's infamous Diyarbakir prison empties for museum makeover
Diyarbakir prison, a symbol of torture and oppression for decades in Turkey, has finally closed to be made into a museum, but some activists see whitewashing on its bloodstained walls.
ISTANBUL — Turning the key in an oversized padlock fastened to the doors of Diyarbakir prison in southeast Turkey Sunday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said he was ending one of the darkest periods in the country’s history.
The imposing structure in the heart of the city — known for horrific human rights abuses in the 1980s and 1990s — is to reopen as a museum.
Bozdag said the new attraction would follow the examples of Yassiada, an island off Istanbul where government ministers were tried following Turkey’s 1960 coup, and Ankara’s Ulucanlar prison in becoming reminders of previous injustices.
Accepting the key from Bozdag, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the museum would allow visitors to “learn from our past mistakes … so as not to repeat them in the future.”
