When we argued about the roots of PKK, I mentioned several times : One of the reason we have the Kurdish problem and PKK was ´jail of Diyarbakir during 1980s´.
Here is a partial translation of an article on the subject:

Abas Çelik who was born in Mardin Kiziltepe, taken to custody from the village he was living in February 1981 by the soldiers. He was 16, he was the eldest son of Çelik family and he was was   a shepherd. As he never went to school he was talking in Turkish with a difficulty.
"Something happened, we did not know, they took me to Mardin army base". According to gendarme records he stayed in custody for 75 days. "they tortured me day and night. I was subjected to everything". What he means with ´everything´ that giving electric to his genitals, hanging from his arms to the ceiling, beating, falaka (beating the bottom of feet), inserting baton (150 people who happened to be in custody given written statements about these types)

"they took me to Diyarbakir from there, to the prosecuter!. Celik, after 75 days of custody, got arrested and sent to prison. he was accused of helping and harboring the organization. Much later as it was understood by the supreme court, there was no evidence in his file but 16 years old Celik spent 6.5 years as a prisoner. And there he saw the real torture which made him miss his days in custody. Without exception everyday in the jail were beatings with baton, falaka and torture.
"it is a big and thick baton. When they were hitting they were counting till 500..they were making us crawl  in sewage water..making us lick floors..they were dipping us into sewage including our heads from manholes..no water..they had a dog, they gave the water which was used to wash that dog´s head...sometimes they would not give food for 20 days..once a week, one bread..shared by 4 people"

When they were beating everybody in a line, a person died with brain hemorrhage , he says, celik who was in the same cell when a prisoner set himself a fire to protest..
Abas celik, who spent 2 freezing winter with a vest and pull up with no heating, was released in May 1986 with broken bones and visible torture marks.

We are trying to explain that ´12 Eylul/September´ who collected those shepherd from those plains and hosted them in layers of hell that even could not be imagined by Dante, created this dreadful war we are having right now.

Those shepherd who was taken from their villages ;smashed to bits by being pushed below the level of  human being; went through the torture chambers of diyarbakir prison that was much worse than  Guantanamo and Auschwitch and had power to walk when released, went up to mountains.

orig article in Turkish



* 12 Eylul is the name given to the regime after 12 September Coup D´Etat in Turkey.

There is a collection of pictures of these torture victims somewhere on the net, but I can´t seem to find it now.

did those people get jailed and tortured  because they were Kurds or leftists?

Much more Turks got jailed, tortured, and killed during the coup, and these circumstances were not exclusive to Diyarbakir. all the leftists faced this situation regardless of the place they lived in or their race.

nice try thehandsom, but this is cheap pkk propaganda to say the least.

What do you have to say about the fact that it even happened?

what do you mean by "the fact that it even happened"?

 That so many people were taken into custody without a valid reason and tortured, then later being attested and spending years behind bars in inhumane conditions and being tortured on a daily basis. Whether someone are PKK, MHP or your average civilian, they are still living persons. There is no way to justify it.

who tried to justify it? what handsom is trying to say is that the government tortured the Kurds just because they were Kurds which is a cheap pkk lie. The government arrested, tortured and killed more Turks than Kurds during the coup. All the leftists faced such things in some way regardless of their race. There wasn`t even such a race conflict in 1980.

 That may be possible, I don´t know - do you have any documentation we can read?

But even if you think the intention of this thread is false, don´t you think it´s horrible that a government treated it´s citizens this way and even tries to cover it up?

I don`t think anybody tries to cover this up, not even the government itself. Even Kenan Evren who was the head general of the army and the president admits that they tortured people. You can find lots of books talking about what was going on in the jails.

Jail of Diyarbakir was specially famous amongs the other ones during 1980´s.. The turture was almost double comparing to other jails.. (Diyarbakir jail was considered in worst 10 jails in the world btw)

I will check the cases and read some of the books again and tell you that they were DOUBLE turtured because they were KURDS or them being KURDS played a huge part for the level of torture they were subjected..