İslahiye District Public Library, officially İslahiye Sabiha-Aziz Bali District Public Library (), is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending 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 servic ...

in the

İslahiye İslahiye is a municipality and district of Gaziantep Province, Turkey. Its area is 865 km2, and its population is 67,650 (2022). It is a railway border crossing into Syria. Near İslahiye is the site of ancient Nicopolis. The railway stat ...

district of

Gaziantep Province Gaziantep Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in south-central Turkey. It is located in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in ...

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

History

İslahiye Prison () 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 (), part of the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

, 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 southernmost Turkey, near the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province and Kilis District. Its population is 112,187 (2022). On 6 February 2023 Kilis was badly affected by the tw ...

. 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 municipality and district of Gaziantep Province, Turkey. Its area is 697 km2, and its population is 41,322 (2022). Nurdağı is west of the city of Gaziantep. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck from Nurdağı on 6 Februar ...

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 chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

İşbank İşbank, officially Türkiye İş Bankası, is a commercial bank in Turkey. Founded by the orders of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1924, it is the first bank to go into operation in the Turkey, Republic of Türkiye. As of a late 2023 report, the b ...

, 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