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Ministry of National Education: 'An error that cannot be condoned'

The Ministry of National Education (MEB) stated that naming a school after Esat Oktay Yıldıran, the torturer of Diyarbakır Prison, is "an error that can easily be understood as one that cannot be condoned by our Ministry."

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The Ministry of National Education (MEB) has announced that it has conducted the necessary investigation regarding the naming of a primary school in İzmir after Esat Oktay Yıldıran, the torturer of Diyarbakır Prison following the September 12 coup, and that they do not condone this action.

STATEMENT FROM THE MINISTRY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION

In the Ministry's statement, it was said that naming a school after Yıldıran is "an error that can easily be understood as one that cannot be condoned by our Ministry."

The statement also recalled that the authority to name institutions belongs to the governorates, and noted that the necessary information has been provided to the İzmir Governorate.

"IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR US TO CONDONE THIS DECISION"

The statement from the Ministry of National Education is as follows:

"Following reports that a school in İzmir was named after Esat Oktay Yıldıran, the necessary investigation has been conducted by our Ministry.

Considering the practices of removing names from streets and schools that have long been associated with events that offend the public's sense of justice and wound the conscience, it can easily be understood that such an action is an error that cannot be condoned by our Ministry.

It is not possible for us to condone this decision, which means carrying the wrongs of a period that still leaves deep scars in our collective memory into the present day, regardless of when it was taken.

We would like it to be known that we will continue to strive to establish a fair memory and to heal the wounds that are the product of past suffering.

In this context, the necessary information has been provided to the governorate (İzmir Governorate), which has the authority to name institutions according to the 'Ministry of National Education Regulation on Opening, Closing, and Naming Institutions'."

WHO IS ESAT OKTAY YILDIRAN?

Esat Oktay Yıldıran was one of the officers who served as the Internal Security Commander at Diyarbakır Prison following the September 12 coup.  

The acts of violence committed by Yıldıran included setting his dog on prisoners, beatings, sexual torture of women, forcing them to exercise and walk around naked, rape, tying ropes to men's genitals and forcing them to run, beatings while playing the National Anthem, forcing prisoners to eat feces, and inserting batons into the rectum. Kurdish politicians such as Ahmet Türk, Celal Paydaş, Mustafa Çakmak, Orhan Miroğlu, Selim Çürükkaya, Şükrü Gülmüş, Nurettin Yılmaz, and Gültan Kışanak are among those who were subjected to Yıldıran's torture.


Yıldıran was killed on October 22, 1988, in a public bus he had boarded with his wife and 2 children in Ümraniye, Istanbul.