Following the F-type isolation prisons introduced in Turkey in the late 1990s, the S model is now being implemented. The aim of these new high-security prisons is to isolate political prisoners who have been sentenced to life imprisonment with no prospect of release. After Antalya, Iğdır and Muğla, the new model is now being introduced in Erzurum.

In the S-type prisons, prisoners are housed in single cells. The average capacity consists of 500 to 550 detention places. Execution is regulated even more strictly than in the F-types. In addition to political "lifers," prisoners classified as dangerous under Law No. 5275 Article 9/3 are also to be housed there.

ANF asked HDP deputy Muazzez Orhan and the co-chair of the prisoners' aid organization TUHAY-DER in Van, Edibe Babur, for their assessment of the new prison model. They both believe that the isolation that began on the prison island of Imrali is now to be extended to all of Turkey's prisons.

Orhan: With the S-type, isolation is legalized

Muazzez Orhan, a member of parliament for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) from Van, describes the prisons in Turkey as "death houses." Everything is done to ensure that political prisoners no longer leave the penal system alive, explains the Kurdish politician: "With the S-type, prisoners are completely isolated. Left to their own devices, they are deprived of any connection to the human condition. Psychologically, prisoners cannot continue to live like this. There will be deaths and mental illness. Isolation, which has been applied on Imrali since 1999, is spreading to the whole of Turkey with the introduction of S-type prisons. Isolation is being legalized. The physical circumstances are meant to legitimize and normalize the isolation policy. This measure is directed against political prisoners. Thousands of people are left to die in isolation because of their political opinions. Penal houses become death houses. Thousands of Kurdish political prisoners will be concentrated in this prison."

Babur: Like concentration camps

Edibe Babur points out the increased construction of prisons in Turkey. She reports that prisoners from the Black Sea region have been transferred to Erzurum. Sixty prisoners from Trabzon, Gümüşhane, Giresun, Rize, Zonguldak and Istanbul have been transferred to Erzurum so far, according to the co-chair of the Prisoners' Aid Organization. The two S-type prisons built in Erzurum are supposed to be responsible for the entire region. The first S-type prison was opened last week. All relocated friends are collected there. All of these friends are sentenced to life terms. The S-types will become concentration camps for Kurdish prisoners. This development is very worrying."

Babur assumes stricter measures in the new prison model. A distance is to be built up between the prisoners: "Due to the resistance, the F-type prisons did not achieve what was desired. This is now to be implemented with the S-types. It has become obvious that friends do not give up their political ideas. That is why they are now to be singled out. The S-type is a model of individual death cells. This model is introduced for the Kurdish youth and Kurdish politicians. Their opinions are to be isolated and a distance is to be created from their relatives. Erzurum has been chosen as the location because the province is difficult to reach for many relatives. Nevertheless, the Kurds will neither give up their opinions nor renounce their dignity. We call on the Ministry of Justice to refrain from this policy. Humanity dies every day in prisons, dead bodies come out of prisons every day. This will continue to increase with the S-types. The public needs to be vigilant on this issue."