According to KurdPress, the Law and Human Rights Commission of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) issued a statement demanding the closure of Type Y and Type S prisons and high-security facilities—prisons the party has characterized as "dungeons."

The statement notes that, as of June 2026, Turkey has effectively become a "giant prison," with 427,525 individuals incarcerated and another 497,788 subject to judicial supervision or parole. The DEM Party declared that the restricted freedom of approximately 925,000 people—out of Turkey’s population of 86 million—reflects the government's anti-democratic nature and its drive to control and suppress society.

In the continuation of its statement, the DEM Party’s Law and Human Rights Commission emphasized: "The darkest aspect of this system of repression is found in the high-security, S-type, and Y-type prisons—facilities we describe as 'dungeon-like,' where each unit serves, in effect, as a coffin for the inmates."

The statement notes that the number of these centers has reached 41, and that they were established to hold prisoners—particularly political prisoners—in conditions of absolute isolation that violate human dignity. According to the commission, these prisons disregard universal human rights and drive inmates toward gradual breakdown by subjecting them to physical and psychological pressure.

In another part of the statement, the DEM Party addressed the death of Gürkan Türkoğlu, a prisoner who had gone on a hunger strike to protest what has been termed an "illegal and inhumane system of isolation." The statement reports that, during the final stage of his hunger strike, Türkoğlu was transferred to the intensive care unit of Antalya City Hospital against his will.

It is further reported that Türkoglu ended his hunger strike on April 21—following efforts by representatives from the DEM Party’s commission, legal bodies, and professional organizations, and after his demands were met—but he was unable to leave the intensive care unit due to the physical consequences of the 266-day strike and passed away after a three-month struggle for survival.

The DEM Party’s Law and Human Rights Commission held the Turkish Ministry of Justice and the government responsible for Türkoglu’s death, stating that the fatality was the result of the insistence on maintaining high-security prisons as well as Type S and Type Y prisons.

The statement notes that the DEM Party commission has previously issued comprehensive reports repeatedly warning of the devastating consequences associated with these prisons; despite parliamentary inquiries, the government has maintained its silence.

In its statement, the DEM Party emphasized: "Every suspicious death in high-security, 'S-type,' and 'Y-type' prisons constitutes a murder. Conditions in these facilities amount to torture and inhumane treatment; prisoners are driven toward death not by natural causes, but through a systematic cycle of violence."

Concluding its statement, the DEM Party’s Law and Human Rights Commission called for an effective investigation into these deaths and the prosecution of those responsible, declaring that prisons which violate human dignity and subject inmates to isolation must be shut down immediately.