Prison riots are frequent in Turkey's overcrowded jails.
In the past three weeks alone, several incidents were reported. In the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, radical Islamist prisoners, members of the Hizbullah group, took 17 guards hostage at the end of October and demanded to see human rights activists. The standoff ended without intervention from the 400 paramilitary troops which had surrounded the prison. A few days earlier, similar events had taken place in Elazig, where other Hizbullah members released the guards they had captured after obtaining a promise from the authorities that they would improve prison conditions. In another establishment, gangsters calling for an amnesty held prison wardens for several days and set fire to the jail before finally abandoning their protest.