Paşakapısı Prison is a small prison located in Üsküdar district of Istanbul, Turkey. First built in 1799 on orders of the Ottoman sultan Selim III as a hunting palace, the facility was used as a school for nuns between 1918 and 1923. In 1928, it was converted to a prison, which it still is at present day (October 2011). Between 2003 and 2008, it had been exclusively used for housing female prisoners. Today, after female prisoners are moved to another facility in 2008, the building still functions as a prison, allocated, this time, for convicted state employees. [1] [2]
Üsküdar, traditionally known in Italian and English as Scutari, is a large and densely populated district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered on the north by Beykoz, on the east by Ümraniye, on the southeast by Ataşehir, on the south by Kadıköy, and on the west by the Bosphorus, with the areas of Beşiktaş, Beyoğlu, and Eminönü on the opposite shore. It is home to about half a million people. Üsküdar is also the usual name for the historic center of the municipality.
Istanbul, formerly known as Byzantium and Constantinople, is the most populous city in Turkey and the country's economic, cultural and historic center. Istanbul is a transcontinental city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosporus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives in suburbs on the Asian side of the Bosporus. With a total population of around 15 million residents in its metropolitan area, Istanbul is one of the world's most populous cities, ranking as the world's fourth largest city proper and the largest European city. The city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Istanbul is viewed as a bridge between the East and West.
Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. East Thrace, located in Europe, is separated from Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorous strait and the Dardanelles. Turkey is bordered by Greece and Bulgaria to its northwest; Georgia to its northeast; Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south. Istanbul is the largest city, but more central Ankara is the capital. Approximately 70 to 80 per cent of the country's citizens identify as Turkish. Kurds are the largest minority; the size of the Kurdish population is a subject of dispute with estimates placing the figure at anywhere from 12 to 25 per cent of the population.
Probably a remote and forested place in 1799, location of the prison is now engulfed by the metropolitan Istanbul, to such an extent that it is considered one of the central locations in the city. Also owing to poor city planning, the prison is now circled by residential and other governmental buildings. The daily functions and activities of the prison reportedly cause disturbances in the daily lives of the nearby residents. [3]
