When I tried to pass the gates of the Embassy the other day, it is not not my usual security guards ("User name" Password! Welcome Mr. Ambassador! ") who welcomed me. No, this is a barrier rather unexpectedly, the following message in big red letters: "Bu siteye erişim mahkeme kararıyla engellenmiştir", "Access to this site is prohibited by court order." Two additional line, one Turkish and one in English, adding that access to the site has been suspended in accordance with Decision 2008/2761 of the 1st Criminal Court of Peace of Diyarbakir, the Republic of Turkey. And when I say "this site" is obviously Blogspot referred not only to the Embassy.
I was a little surprised, because, well, let's be polite, but the fact remains that the small local judge in Diyarbakir (south-east Turkey, long the center of Kurdish separatism and hot by the very fact of the government's fight against Kurdish separatism), he seems to carry off, to block the access of all countries to one of the most popular sites internets.
Still it is not entirely new. In recent months, the Turkish judges seem to take perverse pleasure to ban websites on the left and right. The victim is the most famous Youtube (it works more efficiently in Turkey since last May), but there are dozens of others - many of which (including "video.google.com") have seen their access to new permit . The reasons for this censorship vary, including the usual references pornography and child prostitution, but also insults against the memory of Atatürk and user guides too explicit for budding terrorists. To my knowledge, there has been no case where the insult to the Muslim religion was invoked directly - sorry for those who love to explain everything with the phrase "wah but it is a Muslim country." In the case of Blogspot, it was a cable TV channel who opposed the unlawful redistribution of their channels through a blog.
I am a staunch supporter of freedom of expression. This is one of the most essential principles for my work and for what I consider an otherwise healthy company, at least be able to heal his own pain. And what I am a staunch supporter, is the principle itself, not its application to all those who have the same opinions as me. Those who argue that anorexia is a choice of living, those who deny the Holocaust, those who shout from the rooftops that Islam is a terrorist nature, they are human scum. But even more dangerous than human shit is a shit man who develops a persecution complex. If their ideas are indefensible, they respond with their arguments, they are ridiculed. Censorship is the worst evidence of intellectual weakness.
Yet this is not a denunciation of censorship Blogspot (and myself, by extension) was a victim. No, that court in Diyarbakir, I'm just saying do what you want, make yourself at home, maybe the decision was correct. Maybe this is the right thing to do in a country like Turkey - no matter what the expression "a country like Turkey" could mean.
past few months, things heat up around here. Some trying to outlaw the ruling party. Other trying to sue a group that had perhaps intended a coup - or exist any just not. During the Turkish lira is affected, and we at times feel that the situation could turn into a political crisis with grave consequences.
ago who organized a movement against Internet censorship in Turkey. A movement by Turks for Turks. And if things go badly, if not religious or nationalist or military or terrorist end up deciding that a little abuse of power or even violence is necessary, these same Turks, these citizens of the Republic of Turkey may suffer the full consequences. Legal consequences, physical, or when any change on the theme of exile. And I, for my part, I'll be back home, and I will cultivate my tomatoes without much worry about the shit I left behind me. A bit like the brave little beavers who are going to demonstrate for Tibet last summer and have not felt the need to share the batons distributed on the streets of Lhasa after the riots they have encouraged. The courage to stand fearless when nothing is left to others to suffer the consequences.
access to Blogger has just been restored to Turkey. And me is my duty to non-citizen to close my mouth, and speak of the beam planted in my own country.
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