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Prison No 5: Eleven Years in Turkish Jails
English (translation)Original French
98 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1997
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March 8, 2022
The Diyarbakir Prison in Turkey is one of the most barbaric and sadistic jails in the world. The level of cruelty that the Kurdish prisoners faced in the military-led Diyarbakir prison in the 80s recalls and resembles that of the treatment of the Guantanamo detainees, and in some cases, worse. There have been incidents of people setting themselves on fire, hunger strikes for weeks, and even a few inmates have committed suicides to escape such brutal tortures.
Some testimonies read: "We experienced all torture methods, including electricity, but the most severe was sexual torture. They made the women they raped walk around the wards in their bloody skirts."
Unlike Guantanamo, the Diyarbakir prison did not receive much international pressure and media attention, creating more authority for the abusers. The former was imprisoned due to their religion and allegedly terrorism, while the latter was because of their ethnicity and allegedly separatism, refusing the forced assimilation.
The Turkish regime's brutal treatment of the Kurds and violations of international human rights played a vital role in PKKs declaration of armed struggle in 1984. The stories the justly elected mayor, Mehdi Zana, and thousands like him had to go through are horrific. How can one not be disturbed by the fact that one could be sentenced to prison for testifying in the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights?
Even though the anti-Kurdish policies have slightly reduced from the horrors of the 80s and 90s, unfortunately, the imprisonment of [Kurdish] justly elected MPs in Turkey is still ongoing today. Turkey still has a long way to go to be considered "Democratic" in the eyes of the West or "Religiously righteous" to appeal to the Kurdish Muslims and those Muslims who are unbiasedly grounded in the topic.
This book does not detail the "Kurdish question," which isn't its main objective either. Still, it exposes a piece of the century-long oppression, mindset and inhumane actions the Turkish Republic has done in these torture chambers and how remnants of the psychological war continue today.
Some testimonies read: "We experienced all torture methods, including electricity, but the most severe was sexual torture. They made the women they raped walk around the wards in their bloody skirts."
Unlike Guantanamo, the Diyarbakir prison did not receive much international pressure and media attention, creating more authority for the abusers. The former was imprisoned due to their religion and allegedly terrorism, while the latter was because of their ethnicity and allegedly separatism, refusing the forced assimilation.
The Turkish regime's brutal treatment of the Kurds and violations of international human rights played a vital role in PKKs declaration of armed struggle in 1984. The stories the justly elected mayor, Mehdi Zana, and thousands like him had to go through are horrific. How can one not be disturbed by the fact that one could be sentenced to prison for testifying in the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights?
Even though the anti-Kurdish policies have slightly reduced from the horrors of the 80s and 90s, unfortunately, the imprisonment of [Kurdish] justly elected MPs in Turkey is still ongoing today. Turkey still has a long way to go to be considered "Democratic" in the eyes of the West or "Religiously righteous" to appeal to the Kurdish Muslims and those Muslims who are unbiasedly grounded in the topic.
This book does not detail the "Kurdish question," which isn't its main objective either. Still, it exposes a piece of the century-long oppression, mindset and inhumane actions the Turkish Republic has done in these torture chambers and how remnants of the psychological war continue today.
Displaying 1 of 1 review