A former prison in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır long marked by history is undergoing a major overhaul, with Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy visiting the site to inspect its conversion into a memorial museum and cultural center.
After the Justice Ministry transferred its inmates in October 2022, the facility was locked and handed over to the Culture and Tourism Ministry. Designated as a protected heritage site, the building underwent restoration starting in 2024.
Following the completion of structural reinforcement in 2025, workers removed non-original additions and finalized the roof, electrical and mechanical upgrades for the exhibition space. A dedicated board shaped the memorial concept through archives, field meetings and interviews with former inmates and witnesses.
Spanning 47,000 square meters, the site features an 18,500-square-meter section housing a museum and a library. The former gym is becoming a 520-seat theater, alongside open-air spaces.
The center will likely open in the first half of 2027, Ersoy said.
“We are creating a memorial museum showing the victims of that period are not forgotten,” he stated.
Diyarbakır Governor Murat Zorluoğlu, Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker Mehmet Galip Ensarioğlu, AKP provincial head Hamit Sümer and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) provincial head Miktat Arslan accompanied Ersoy. Ensarioğlu, an inmate there 40 years ago, said the transformation will explain the value of democracy.
Transferred to military administration after the Sept. 12, 1980 coup, the prison became known for systematic torture and human rights abuses. Official records show more than 30 inmates died between 1980 and 1984, while 10 died during unrest on Sept. 24, 1996.
