Diyarbakır Prison is to become a memorial museum

Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has announced that the former Diyarbakır Prison will be converted into the Diyarbakır Memorial Museum and Cultural Centre. Reported by Artkolik on 31 July 2026, the plan includes a memorial museum, a library, temporary and permanent exhibition galleries, multipurpose event spaces, areas for art and performance, and open public space. Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy described the site as a future memory space for coming generations.

The building is associated with severe human rights abuses following the coup of 12 September 1980, which makes it one of the heaviest sites in Turkey's recent history. No timetable, budget or curatorial team has been announced. International precedents, from ESMA in Buenos Aires to Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, suggest the architecture is the easier half of the problem. What a memorial museum says depends on whose testimony the permanent display centres, and whether its archive is open to researchers.