You Cannot Read This Post In Turkey

On Friday, October 24, the blogosphere suffered from a major blow; Google powered Blogger was banned in the Turkish Republic. Anyone who went to view the vast spectrum of blogs, from a Turkish IP address, came upon the same message: “ Access to this website has been banned by court order.” The irony is quite clear, how is will the Turkish Government continue to argue that it is democratic?

Lets try to decrypt this situation, little by little, step by step. What was the main cause for this unjust ban? At first it was rumored that Adnan Okyar, the leading Muslim advocate for creationism caused the ban. However later on it was understood that this was just a speculation and the real reason that caused the blogger ban was infringement. Blogger was sued by a subscription based Turkish TV platform, DigiTurk, because there were some bloggers that broadcasted DigiTurk’s channels without permission. In conclusion the domain of blogger and *.blogger.com is not accessible from a Turkish IP address any longer. This being a reminder of the ban of popular website You Tube, which came across the same fate no longer than six months ago.
Enlightened media experts, journalists and amateur bloggers are furious, as well as the general public. This impacts the freedom of speech that has been promised to Turkish citizens because they are living in a democratic country. Emre Kizilkaya, blogger of The Istanbulian, also a Blogger.com site, says: “I changed my mind: The AKP should have been banned long ago, because it allows the banning of everything except itself. This is not democracy.” I think that even the supporters of the current government have lost their feeling of unconditional legitimacy towards AKP. A few students who have the same stance as Mr. Kizilkaya, wanted to protest this ban but were immediately silenced by the “police” in a forceful manner. The consequences of this action can, hopefully, shake off the ignorance and silence that some Turks possess. Maybe they will then understand than the nation is being given away to the dark and primitive thoughts of the current ruling party, the AKP.
Looking at this situation from an international relations lens, I find many troubling aspects. The first one is the violation of freedom, which also has a strong link with the idea of secularism or laicism, about which I have wrote in my previous post “Secularism: Friend or Foe.” Living in a country which identifies itself as democratic, should not ban a platform because of infringement. In other words, many should not pay the penalty of the impertinence of few. Censorship should not play a role in a secular country. The second aspect is how this ban will be analyzed in the international arena. It is known that the ties that Turkey has with the actors in the international community is currently not that strong. Especially in the case of the European Union and the accession process that has been ongoing for what it seems like decades. Since the EU has been demanding from Turkey, the conservation of rights, this puts the country in an even worse position than before. It seems to me that membership to the EU is close to impossible. (Not that I think it is necessary in any manner, due to the adaptation problems that will occur, and the values that the EU is supposedly bearing!) The last aspect that I wish to touch upon is the ignorant press release of Binali Yildirim, Minister of Transportation. Spectacularly high intelligence is not needed to come upon this question: how is this person of any relevance to the case discussed about the ban of blogger? The answer is, he is not of any relevance, but since he is on the side of AKP, no one interrogates what he said: “ We have to be careful, as a ministry, for the people not to be badly impacted by the Internet.” What does the ministry of transportation have anything to do with the ban of Blogger and You Tube? These small but important indicators are proof that the AKP is not doing its job in a dignified manner.

As a Turkish citizen myself, I have learned not to be overly critical of situations because sanity is at stake. However in order to achieve the goals that I have for the future, I need to come up with solid arguments to silly situations. However I am certain about how I feel about my freedom; It should not and cannot be taken away from me because of the mistakes of others. This ban is a clear manifestation of the governments policies toward the values that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk implemented on society while the formation of the Turkish Republic. With those blogs, my freedom, my ideas, my values, and the values of Ataturk have also been banned. I am collateral damage, and I do not like it.