In Turkey, they say that behind the walls of Silivri it is cold - no matter if it is winter or summer. The prison is located near Istanbul and is the largest in Europe. It houses political prisoners, including the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu. He will probably stay there for a long time. With him in prison is a large part of the municipal administration of the largest Turkish city, as well as many opposition politicians.
For Turkish journalists, a stay in Silivri is now almost part of the standard biography, writes "Süddeutsche Zeitung". Three weeks ago, TV presenter Fatih Altayli was arrested - accused of threatening President Erdogan. Something he categorically denies. But he writes letters in which he talks about his life behind bars.
There are currently over 20,000 prisoners in Silivri. The prison's capacity is 11,000 people.
"Everyone here has fought for the right things"
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin also ended up in Silivri prison when he tried to enter Turkey on March 27 of this year to cover the protests in Istanbul against the arrest of Mayor Imamoglu. Medin was accused of "belonging to a terrorist group" and "insulting the president". He spent nearly two months in prison, and was surprisingly released on May 16.
The journalist spoke to "Süddeutsche Zeitung" about the appalling conditions in the notorious Turkish prison. "Everything is paid for - spoons, plates, drinking water, shaving tools", says Medin. According to him, everyone has their own "prison account", where relatives and friends send money. For everything they need, requests had to be written in Turkish, which Medin does not speak. His cellmates help him with the translation. "Never throw anything away, who knows what you might need it for", they advise him. They also invite him to interview them, because they have something to tell him.
"They told me to keep working, because whoever is imprisoned there is defending the right things, not a criminal", the Swedish journalist tells "Süddeutsche Zeitung". He shares that this helped him endure his stay. He also says that political prisoners are still in a better situation than those in the other wing of the prison - according to Medin, they are crammed into small cells and have to fight for everything.
Most prisoners in Europe
The Turkish government is constantly building new prisons, with eleven more planned by 2027, because the number of prisoners is growing, writes "Süddeutsche Zeitung". When Recep Erdogan came to power in 2003 as prime minister, there were approximately as many people behind bars as in Germany. Today, Turkey has slightly more inhabitants than Germany, but the number of prisoners is much higher. There are approximately 60,000 prisoners in Germany. In Turkey, the most recent number is around 400,000 - the largest in Europe.
Some of them are convicted murderers or drug traffickers. People who would be in prison in other countries. But there are also those who have been convicted by the Turkish justice system of terrorism - a charge that is interpreted very broadly. Of all the prisoners in Europe serving sentences for terrorism, 95% are in Turkey. Anyone who has installed an application on their mobile phone that has also been used by supporters of the Gülen movement, for example, is considered a terrorist. It is the followers of the preacher, who died in 2024 in the United States, that Erdogan blames for the coup attempt in July 2016. Sometimes, for such an accusation, it is enough to write a single article in a newspaper.
One in 30 people has been accused of terrorism
Since 2016 The judiciary is investigating around two million people for terrorism. Approximately one in every 30 adults in Turkey has been suspected of terrorism by the prosecutor's office.
Erdogan's government is not the first to try to control the country with the help of the judicial system. A quarter of a century ago, in early 1999, Recep Erdogan himself spent four months in prison on a charge of "inciting religious hatred," recalls the "Süddeutsche Zeitung." At that time, Turkey's secular elite thought they could stop the rise of the popular Islamist by removing him from the post of mayor of Istanbul and banning him from politics. Ironically, this is exactly the same scenario that they are now implementing with Ekrem İmamoğlu. At that time, Erdogan was serving his sentence in a small prison located near the border with Bulgaria. "Unfortunately", Erdogan said in an interview at the time, "we still don't have a rule of law in our country". Then there was also the huge Silivri prison - Erdogan built it when he was already in power.