YouTube Banned In Turkey March 7, 2007
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I’ll be careful here since we don’t want to upset what has to be one of Europe’s most sensitive nations. Turkey has banned YouTube, blocking access to the site after a court found that the site hosted video clips insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk.
It’s believed that the clips are just the latest chapter in the long-standing animosity held between Turks and Greeks, with the Net acting as the new battlefield. It is a crime in Turkey to insult Ataturk or ‘Turkishness’ apparently and can land you a prison sentence if you do. Wow, I know where I’m going on holiday.-Martin Lynch
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
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Comments
FYI, Turkey is not in Europe, mainly due to human rights and freedom of speech issues. This is a perfect example!
Turkey is one of the most amazing places I have ever been on holiday. The people are so friendly to people, although if you are English and there for a p*ss up be carefull.
MrE: You are confusing Europe and European Union. Turkey most definitely IS in Europe, at least partialy, in fact Turkey spans both Europe and Asia.
I have been to Turkey on holiday lots of times, there is nothing to be worried about as tourism is one of the major sources of income for the government and it's people.
I have been to Turkey and had a great time. Its such an awesome country and really doesn't deserve the bad rep it seems to carry.
It seems us Turks just don't know how to take things a bit less serious. Why not responding to this ridiculous video by making one up that ridicules the Greek?
This reminds me of another incident when we discovered that Italy was supporting the Kurdish leader Ocalan, we burned our Italian furnitures and other items that we had paid for.
Don't be so harsh on all Turks. Every country has a collection of morons. If you think burning Italian furniture is bad, what of certain Americans who wanted get rid of the Statue of Liberty all because their xenophobic attitudes could no longer tolerate the French and anything to do with the French.
There's good and bad in every country.
We need to change some things here. Justice was a bit extreme with stopping YouTube. Those issues are something that stigmatizes us and it will not be easy to get into EU. We also need to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Kurds, remove the army from Cyprus and settle things in the Aegean.
It's a long way before we are officialy civilized.
Just for the record, so people know i have no bias either way, i'm a half turkish half english.
People may say the justice system in Turkey is extreme but in all fairness at least there actually IS a justice system. I'm not saying there aren't issues that must be improved upon. I am saying that with the way the justice system works in turkey we actually have order. No yobs roaming the streets destroying things, no helpless people terrorized in their homes. You can walk the streets in the middle of the night and still feel safe.
Banning youtube may have been abit rash though i admit, the content should have been taken out rather than youtube being banned.
Mesut
I lived in Turkey 1 year and when you are saying that street are safe at night, it bullocks. In Turkey even school children carry knives.
Richard
Turns out that the video may have been uploaded by a British hacker wioth the youtube screenname of mr. seanie in an attempt to ignite tensions between the two countries. I'd say it was fairly successful.
Mesut
I have lived in turkey for 3 years and i was once almost robber by a bunch of 10 years old kids at Tarlabasi (where most of the residents there were homeless and poor as you described before). And for the record: Since you dared to describe the system in Turkey as a "justice system" it means that you are happy with it so... so be it!