Turks and Greeks spent the week fighting the YouTube Wars.
On Wednesday, the Istanbul First Criminal Peace court ordered that access be blocked to the video-sharing Web site YouTube because it was running a video it deemed offensive. The clip showed a statue of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1891-1938), the founder and first president of the modern Republic of Turkey, with an audio track saying, "I am the father of gay Turks."
Insulting Atatürk is a crime punishable by prison in Turkey. Within hours of the Wednesday ruling, Turk Telecom, owner of most Internet access in Turkey, had banned access to YouTube. Turk Telecom claims that it obliged voluntarily but refused to take a public stance on the video's content.
"We are not in the position of saying that what YouTube did was an insult, that it was right or wrong," the head of Turk Telekom, Paul Doany, told the state-run Anatolia news agency.
The ban, which lasted about a day, caused an outcry. On Thursday, four college students submitted a petition to the Istanbul court, claiming that blocking the internet violated their right to free speech.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman declined to comment on the ban, telling a news conference it was a court matter.
Press freedom watchdog Reporters without Borders condemned the ban. "Blocking all access to a video-sharing site because of a few videos that are considered offensive is a radical and inappropriate measure," the group said. "We hope the Turkish courts will behave with moderation, especially as regards presumed attacks on Turkish identity."
Under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, the "denigration of Turkishness" is a criminal act. Over 60 charges have been brought under this article since it was introduced in 2005, the most prominent being against writer and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk for public statements he made on the Armenian genocide. Under mounting international pressure, the Turkish court dropped the charges against Pamuk. In January, Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who had been prosecuted under Article 301, was assassinated by a Turkish nationalist in Istanbul.
Turkey, which hopes to join the European Union, has been roundly condemned for not doing enough to curb extreme nationalist sentiment and to protect freedom of expression. Criticism of Article 301 from the EU has moved the Turkish government to consider rewording the article but there is no talk of its abolition. With general elections coming up in November, it doesn't want to risk the loss in popularity that the gesture could entail.
The YouTube video caused a media sensation in Turkey. The nationalist-leaning daily Hurriyet ran a front page story on Wednesday, claiming that thousands of people had e-mailed YouTube to protest the video. "YouTube got the message," was the headline.
According to the German daily Die Welt, the Turkish media avoided use of the direct quote "I am the father of gay Turks," for fear of the fury this might unleash.
Nonetheless, patriotic Turkish YouTube users felt compelled to take action. Responding to allegations that the insulting video had been posted by a Greek, the site was bombarded with anti-Greek postings in Turkish -- Die Welt counted 129 as of yesterday -- to which Greek users were all too happy to respond. The common denominator in the ongoing virtual mudslinging has been the accusation of homosexuality.
But while Greek-Turkish relations were taking a beating in the virtual world, things were going much better in the real world. Late Thursday night, Greek Cypriots began demolishing a wall along the boundary that splits the island's capital of Nicosia and separates the Greek population from the Turkish one.
Since a Turkish invasion in 1974, Cyprus been divided between Greeks in the south, who form the internationally-recognized government, and Turks in the north.
"Tonight, we demolished a checkpoint on our side," Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said from Brussels. "Now we will see whether Turkey's troops will withdraw so that the passage will be opened or not."
Although the move was unannounced, Papadopoulos said it had been planned for more than 15 days.
Earlier this year, Turkish Cypriots dismantled a footbridge in the area, angering Greek Cypriots and frustrating plans for a new crossing in the heart of the island capital. Construction of the bridge in late 2005 had prompted Greek Cypriots to withdraw support for plans to re-open Ledras Street as an avenue cutting across the buffer zone that has separated the island since 1974.
"This is a first positive step as a sign of goodwill on behalf of our side," government spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis said.
AFP/Reuters/ap
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