İmralı
İmralı is a small
Turkish island located in the south of
Sea of Marmara, west of Armutlu-Bozburun peninsula within the
Bursa Province. It serves currently as a maximum-security prison island for its only inmate
Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of
PKK.
The island, measuring a length of 8 km in the north-south direction with a width of 3 km, has an area of 25 km². Highest peak is Türk Tepesi ("Turkish Hill") with 217 m altitude.
İmralı was conquered from the
Byzantine Empire in 1308 by Emir Ali, the fleet commander of
Orhan Gazi. With a naval base established on it, the island, which was the first ever-captured island by
Ottomans, enabled control of traffic in the Sea of Marmara, and cut the connection of Byzantines to Bursa. The name of the island İmralı is derived from the name of its conqueror Emir Ali, who was one of first admirals of the Ottomans.
Until the aftermath
Turkish War of Independence, three
Greek villages existed on the island. The islanders were engaged mostly in growing grapes,
vinification and
silk production and fishing. The onion of İmralı was famous. Following the
exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the place stood vacant until 1935, when a semi-open category prison was built. The prisoners were allowed to earn money by doing agriculture and fishing. In 1999, after the capture of Abdullah Öcalan, the prison was emptied by sending the inmates to other prisons, and it was turned to a category A prison. There is also a military base on the island, and the area around the island is forbidden zone.
Three politicians were executed on the island in 1961:
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Adnan Menderes, Prime minister
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Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs
*
Hasan Polatkan, Minister of Finance
Award winning film director and political prisoner
*
Yılmaz Güney escaped from the island in 1981.
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Brief history*
On the island*
Brief history*
About the name of the island
