Ottoman Prisons: Horrific in Anatolia (1909-1911); Dungeon for Political Prisoners - “Bekirağa Bölüğü” (1919) Introduction Ahmet Şerif, a correspondant for the Istanbul newspaper Tanin, roamed around Anatolia after “Meşrutiyet” (restoration of the constitution in July 1908) and sent back letters that were published in the newspaper. One of Şerif’s interests was the prison in each place he visited - he found them to be uniformally unfit for human occupation, with some very minor exceptions. He also wrote about three prisons he visited in Albania at that same time – 1909-1911. (PART I). Maraşlıoğlu, a reporter for Türk Yurdu magazine, wrote an article about his visit to a prison in a large, unnamed, town in Izmir province in August 1913: “Although the town was one of the most prosperous district centers in Izmir Province and held historical significance, its prison was in a terrible state, on the verge of collapse.” Maraşlıoğlu did meet with a couple of inmates from the Çepni tribe and enjoyed their company. (PART II) A legal scholar who specialized in penal law, Kevakibizade Abdulhalik Midhat, wrote an article published in İstişare newspaper in February 1908 prescribing the proper way to reform criminals with counseling and teaching them a craft. While the tone of this article was hopeful, the author conceded that building such well-intentioned prisons would be expensive and probably undoable. Certainly, the prisons seen by Ahmet Şerif and Maraşlıoğlu after “Meşrutiyet” in no way resembled the model prisons envisioned six months before that by Kevakibizade Abdulhalik Midhat. (PART III) The infamous “Bekirağa Bölüğü” prison in Istanbul was the subject of Feridun Kandemir’s 1955 article in Resmi Tarhi Mecmuası magazine (PART IV). The prison, named for its first brutal warden Maj. Bekir Ağa (1817-1887), was used by Sultan Abdülhamid as a hellish repository for his enemies. After “Meşrutiyet”, the parties in power alternately used the prison to torture their opponents. Eventually, the English-backed government during the occupation of Istanbul did the same before sending many “Bekirağa Bölüğü” inmates to exile in Malta - see “Malta: English Prison Camp for Ottoman "Dissidents" (1919-1921); Absconding Sultan's Refuge (1922)” on Academia. For an extremely graphic 1