After the military coup of 12 September 1980, the generals abolished parliament, suspended the Constitution and banned all political parties and trade unions, and most other organizations.

[8] Until the return of a democratic government in 1984,[9] visits of civilians to prisoners, by family members as well as lawyers of the defense was prohibited.

[11] At the time, it was not allowed to speak in another language than Turkish, a rule, which was also upheld during visits, and Kurds were thought to be turkified.

[12] Among Diyarbakır's better-known inmates are Democratic Society Party (DTP) leader Ahmet Turk; former DTP deputies Nurettin Yılmaz,[13] Celal Paydaş, and Mustafa Çakmak; former mayor Mehdi Zana; Kurdish writer and intellectual Orhan Miroğlu; and Kurdish poet Yılmaz Odabaşı.

[15] The prison wards used terms usually employed for acts of diversion and cleanness such as disco, welcome, theatre or bathroom for the different styles of torture they practiced.

He received a good welcoming thrashing, and then he was dragged, unconscious, to the 'bath,' a bathtub full of shit in which they left him for a few hours.

"[3] Businessman Selim Dindar said: "Before our detention we thought that torture was applied during interrogation and that the wards in prison were comfortable.

[20] After the changes to the 1982 Constitution of Turkey in September 2010 hundreds of people who claim they were tortured at Diyarbakır Prison in the wake of the 1980 military coup have filed a series of criminal complaints at the local prosecutor's office to open a case against their abusers.

Fourteen died during hunger strikes, 16 were shot to death because they were supposedly trying to escape from prison and 43 people committed suicide.

[22] On 18 May 1982, four young prisoners, Mahmut Zengin, Eşref Anyık, Ferhat Kurtay and Necmi Öner,[23] rolled up in newspapers and sprayed with paint and holding hands, burned themselves alive in protest and have since become important figures in Kurdish collective memory and in the martyrdom discourse of the PKK.

[3] Like any other militant organization in Turkey the PKK calls all members who lose their lives in armed combat, but also in prison a martyr.

[27] Yılmaz Demir was on trial for membership of "Freedom Road" (tr: Özgürlük Yolu) later known as Socialist Party of Kurdistan.

[28] İsmail Kıran (surname sometimes spelled Karak) and Orhan Keskin were alleged members of Devrimci Yol (Revolutionary Path).

"[32] According to the Secretary of the Diyarbakır Medical Association, Dr. Necdet İpekyüz, the followings happened:[32] The incident was investigated by different groups and the public prosecutor.

The Parliamentary Human Rights Commission stressed that "30 soldiers and 38 police officers, who exceeded the limits of their authority, had caused deaths.

[33] The verdict was quashed by the Court of Cassation ruling that the defendants had to be given the opportunity to plead, on changed charges[34] and had to be heard again.