The Ottomans installed this two-storey gaol in a part of Famagusta's Venetian palace's ruins. Namik Kemal was imprisoned here for three years under harsh conditions.
Mehmet Kemal, known as Namik Kemal(1840-1888), was a Turkish writer, translator and journalist, influenced by and influential for the Young Turks (Jön Türkler), a strongly Western-oriented, illegal nationalist and liberal movement in Turkey. Within days after the first staging of his play "Vatan Yahut Silistre" in 1873, he was exiled by the Sultan and jailed in Cyprus until his rehabilitation in 1876. Due to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's references to Namik Kemal's works as a main source of inspiration, the writer enjoys the status of a literary hero for many in Turkey today.
Mehmet Kemal, known as Namik Kemal(1840-1888), was a Turkish writer, translator and journalist, influenced by and influential for the Young Turks (Jön Türkler), a strongly Western-oriented, illegal nationalist and liberal movement in Turkey. Within days after the first staging of his play "Vatan Yahut Silistre" in 1873, he was exiled by the Sultan and jailed in Cyprus until his rehabilitation in 1876. Due to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's references to Namik Kemal's works as a main source of inspiration, the writer enjoys the status of a literary hero for many in Turkey today.