Forty-six years after the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup suspended democracy in Türkiye, the memories of imprisonment, executions and torture remain vivid for survivors, while Ankara’s former Ulucanlar Prison stands as a stark reminder of one of the darkest chapters in the country’s political history.
Built in 1925 as the first prison of the newly founded Republic of Türkiye, Ulucanlar witnessed some of the country’s most turbulent political periods during its 81 years of operation. Politicians, journalists, writers and activists from across the political spectrum were held behind its walls.
The prison was closed in 2006 and transferred to Ankara’s Altındağ Municipality for restoration three years later. It reopened as a museum on June 15, 2011, preserving prison cells, inmates’ personal belongings and accounts of those who were incarcerated or executed there.
The Sept. 12 coup began when Chief of General Staff Gen. Kenan Evren announced the military takeover in a radio address. The National Security Council, composed of Evren and the commanders of the armed forces, assumed control of the country, dissolved Parliament and ushered in a period of sweeping political repression.
Hundreds of people faced death sentences in military courts established after the coup. Left-wing activist Necdet Adalı and nationalist Mustafa Pehlivanoğlu were executed in October 1980.
During the period, about 650,000 people were detained, 230,000 were tried in 210,000 cases and prosecutors sought the death penalty for more than 7,000 people.
For those who survived the prisons of the era, the statistics are accompanied by memories of abuse that have remained vivid for decades.
Muhittin Ilhan, a former provincial head of the nationalist Ülkü Ocakları (Idealists’ Clubs) in Kahramanmaraş, said he was detained in 1978 and subjected to severe abuse before eventually being transferred to Ankara’s Mamak Military Prison.
“If they gave us three meals a day, they beat us at least six times a day,” Ilhan recalled.
He said he weighed 65 kilograms (143 pounds) when he entered Mamak but fell to 41 kilograms within 105 days because of the abuse he endured.
Ilhan said prisoners from opposing political movements were sometimes placed in the same wards under harsh conditions. He was later transferred to Adana, where he said clashes among inmates added another layer of danger to prison life.
Similar accounts have emerged from former prisoners now living in the central province of Kırıkkale.
Izzet Yıldız, 68, said he was detained on Oct. 13 following the coup and taken first to a military facility and then to a detention center in Ankara.
“We experienced torture beyond anything a person could imagine,” Yıldız said, recalling that about 30 people were held in a 16-square-meter room and forced to sleep on concrete.
Yıldız noted detainees were subjected to torture methods including suspension by their arms and electric shocks. He spent 24 months in prison before giving his testimony and was eventually acquitted.
“If my turn to testify had come after 24 days, maybe I would have stayed for 24 days,” he said. “But it came after 24 months, so I spent 24 months in prison.”
Retired teacher Mustafa Hulusi Ulusan, 70, said the memories of Mamak remain difficult to describe even decades later.
“There are some things that are experienced but cannot be explained,” Ulusan said. “Mamak was like that for us.”
Ulusan said detainees were sometimes forced to lie face down outside in cold weather while listening to the screams of prisoners being tortured inside interrogation rooms.
“Listening to their screams was torture in itself,” he added.
He spent 18 months in prison and recalled overcrowded wards where as many as 85 inmates stayed together, sometimes with three people sharing a single bed. During winter, prisoners burned old clothes, boots and shoes because coal supplies were insufficient for heating.
“I was 24 years old,” Ulusan said. “Even today, when I think about it, I get chills.”
Another former prisoner, Irfan Toptaş, 68, said he spent six years at Mamak while being tried in a case involving the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Toptaş said he was detained on Sept. 22, 1980, and subjected to abuse both in Kırıkkale and Ankara. He recalled dogs being set on detainees and said collective prayers were prohibited. During periods of fasting, prisoners saved morning food for iftar and evening meals for sahur.
Toptaş said he later learned from the indictment that prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against him. He spent much of his final three years behind bars in isolation before eventually being released.
More than four decades later, the former inmates’ accounts and the preserved cells of Ulucanlar serve as reminders of the human cost of the military takeover.
As Türkiye marks the 46th anniversary of the Sept. 12 coup, survivors say the passage of time has done little to erase the memories of a period when democratic rule was suspended, and hundreds of thousands were swept into detention, trials and prisons.
