İslahiye District Public Library, officially İslahiye Sabiha-Aziz Bali District Public Library ( tr, İslahiye Sabiha-Aziz Bali İlçe Halk Kütüphanesi), is a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

in the İslahiye district of

Gaziantep Province Gaziantep Province ( tr, ) is a province in south-central Turkey. It is located in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region. Its capital is the city of Gaziantep. It neighbours Adıy ...

in southeastern Turkey, opening in 2020 in a repurposed prison.

History

İslahiye Prison ( tr, İslahiye A2 Tipi Kapalı Ceza İnfaz Kurumu) was established on Santral St. 21 at Hacıali Öztürk neighborhood of İslahiye district in Gaziantep Province as a district penitentiary of type-A2 in 1958. Operated by the General Directorate for Penitentiary and Detention Centers ( tr, Ceza ve Tevkifevleri Genel Müdürlüğü), part of the Ministry of Justice, the closed-category prison had four wards capable of 40 inmates. By August 2019, the prison was closed down, and the 25 inmates were transferred to the type-L prison in

Kilis Kilis is a city in south-central Turkey, near the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province. History Although there aren't any definite information related to its foundation, today's Kilis mainl ...

. It was replaced with a new prison of type-T for 1,600 inmates, 600 detainees and 1,000 convicts, on the highway D.825 between

Nurdağı Nurdağı is a town of Gaziantep Province of Turkey. Nurdağı is west of the city of Gaziantep Gaziantep (), previously and still informally called Aintab or Antep (), is a major city and capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost ...

and İslahiye to meet the needs of the region.

Redevelopment project

The prison building was converted into a library after restoration works financed by Adnan Bali,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

İşbank İşbank, officially Türkiye İş Bankası, is a commercial bank in Turkey. It was the largest private bank in the country by the size of total assets, total loans, total deposits and equity, as well as by the number of branches and employees a ...

, one of the major commercial banks in Turkey. It was named "Sabiha-Aziz Bali District Public Library" (Sabiha-Aziz Bali İlçe Halk Kütüphanesi) in honor of Adnan Bali's parents "Sabiha-Aziz Bali Library". One year after the closing of the 61-year old prison, the library opened in a ceremony attended by local politicians on 21 August 2020. Adnan Bali grew up in İslahiye, a small southern town. His father Aziz Bali, a local government official with limited income, built up a private home library to teache his children. His mother Sabiha Bali, who died in 2019, opened up the home library, which was the only library in the neighborhood, to all children in order to instill a love of reading. There are reading rooms, meeting rooms and a computer room in the library. One of the wards is kept in order to preserve the memory of the building. It is one of the three public libraries in İslahiye district. The others are Altınüzüm and İslahiye Yeşilyurt.

Documentary

The story of the redevelopment project features in a documentary film directed by Vedat Atasoy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Islahiye District Public Library Libraries in Turkey Redevelopment projects in Turkey 2020 establishments in Turkey Defunct prisons in Turkey 1958 establishments in Turkey Buildings and structures in Gaziantep Province Government buildings completed in 1958 İslahiye District