Climbing Over the Great Firewall

For those Internet users based in Turkey wishing to access any WordPress (WP) blog a useful workaround has appeared. The mysterious and bilingual GreatFirewallofTurkey.com has set up a proxy service to enable WP visitors to bypass the block. All the visitor has to do is replace the word “press” with the word “prexy.” For example, “istanbuldespatch.wordpress.com” becomes “istanbuldespatch.wordprexy.com.” The only difference visually is that a “wordprexy” logo appears in the top right hand corner of the screen, linking to the Great Firewall site, where an explanation is at hand on what they’ve done:

Déjà Vu: YouTube Blocked in Turkey Again

Censorship appears to be rapidly increasing in Turkey as YouTube was blocked for the second time yesterday, reports MidEast Youth, just six months after a similar move by the Turkish courts. Back in March of this year, it was due to videos posted by Greek users posting videos deemed to have insulted the country’s founder, Atatürk. This time around, a single citizen from the eastern city of Sivas complained that the site was hosting videos that apparently insult both sides of the Turkish political divide — from recently elected President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, both of the Islamic-rooted AK Party, to, again, the Republic’s founder as well as the Turkish Armed Forces. All of these figures are protected by the Turkish Penal Code.

‘We Will Never Limit Turkish Bloggers’ Freedom of Speech’

WordPress (WP) boss Matt Mullenweg has said in a recent interview that he would never limit the right of Turkish bloggers to express themselves. The show of defiance comes amidst the continuing “firestorm of criticism,” as Internet observers have described it, aimed at the ongoing block of WP on Turkish soil. In the interview, published online in Turkish on the Turkish Internet industry portal turk.internet.com, the 23-year-old WP founder developer estimates that there are some 20 to 30 thousand bloggers in Turkey affected by the ban. Turkish and expat bloggers, as well as their regular readers, have been greeted with the message that the entire WP site “has been suspended in accordance with [court] decision no: 2007/195,” since the private-but-monopoly Turk Telekom telephone company enforced the court order over two weeks ago.

Now It’s CNN: Blocked in Turkey!

I’m sure you are all getting sick of these headlines, “(Insert Web site here) blocked in Turkey!” In fact, I’m even sicker writing them. But yes, this one’s true too. Although, to be more precise, the CNN Political Ticker blog, to be found on the CNN.com site — i.e., not the whole of CNN.com — is blocked in Turkey. The very same message that appears when visiting any WordPress (WP) blog, or the Yahoo-owned Flickr Blog as also recently reported, comes up for the Political Ticker: “Access to this site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/195 of T.C. Fatih 2.Civil Court of First Instance.” Which, of course, means it is the subject of the same private “defamation” court order enacted by one infamous Adnan Oktar.

Oktar Lawyers Issue ‘Threat’

In the latest twist to the ongoing saga of the nationwide block of WordPress.com in Turkey, WordPress (WP) founder Matt Mullenweg has published highlights from latest statements made by the lawyers who initiated the ban. The parts of the “press release” posted on Mullenweg’s own blog on Aug. 25, and issued by the lawyers representing controversial Islamic creationist Adnan Oktar — the man behind the ban on claims of slanderous blogs on WP — appear to go beyond the normal rhetoric of the legal world in justifying their actions on behalf of their client, not to mention being poorly worded in English.

Now It’s Flickr Blog Blocked

Following in the wake of the nationwide WordPress (WP) block in Turkey, readers and writers alike from within the republic’s borders are being greeted by the same message when attempting to access blog.flickr.com: “Access to this site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/195 of T.C. Fatih 2.Civil Court of First Instance.”

Petition Launched to Unblock WordPress in Turkey

With the WordPress block in Turkey showing no signs of abating, the MidEast Youth project has launched a petition urging the Turkish authorities to reconsider their ban. The fourth largest blog site in the world boasting nearly 1.4 million blogs, with 12 million page views per month coming from Turkish readers alone, is currently the subject of a nationwide block due to a private “defamation” lawsuit by controversial religious leader Adnan Oktar.

With the recent landslide re-election of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AK Party) highlighting their success at having passed sweeping EU accession inspired reforms over the last five years, the ban — whilst in keeping with Turkish legal norms — has outraged many in the Internet community and seemingly contradicts the government’s own pro-freedom of speech stance.

MidEast Youth, describing themselves as “a student-owned independent network dedicated to eliminate extremist ideologies and ignorance from the Middle East,” are now spearheading the fight to lift the block.

First Sign of Islamist Censorship in Secular Turkey?

International finance and human rights lawyer and WordPress blogger Ali Eteraz has written a revealing and in-depth analysis of the Turkish legal system’s nationwide block on WordPress.com. The report titled “Shooting the messenger,” and posted on the UK daily Guardian Internet edition, details the rise of Adnan Oktar — pen-name Harun Yahya — the Islamic creationist behind the current block of the “million-blogger strong blogging platform” within the borders of Turkey.

As well as listing Adnan Oktar’s publications on “topics including refutations of atheism and Darwinism, romanticism as a weapon of Satan, anti-evolution pseudo-science, affirmation of miracles, and attacks on Freemasonry, Zionists, Buddhists, and terrorism (Darwin’s fault),” Eteraz draws attention to his 1996 book “Holocaust Lies” which claims that “what is presented as [the] Holocaust is the death of some Jews due to the
typhus plague during the war and the famine towards the end of the war caused by the defeat of the German[s].”

The root of the ban on WordPress in Turkey, according to Eteraz, is attributed to blogs hosted on the platform by Oktar’s “political enemy” and former mentor Edsip Yuksel.

“A fuller picture about the WordPress ban thus starts to emerge,” writes Eteraz,

Islamic Creationist Blocks WordPress in Turkey

With WordPress still blocked in Turkey, WordPress founding developer Matthew Mullenweg has received a letter from the person claiming to be responsible for the block and posted it on his own WP blog. The thrust
of the somewhat absurd issue is that lawyers, acting on behalf of one Adnan Oktar, have applied to the courts to have the internationally well-known free blog site blocked in Turkey on the grounds of “defamation” of their client. Adnan Oktar is an Islamic creationist, also a subject of prosecution in the Turkish legal system, as well as much controversy for his published views railing against Darwinism, Semitism and Buddhism among other established belief systems. You can follow the reponse to Matt’s publication of the letter by clicking here.

WordPress Blocked in Turkey

Just months after blocking youTube — drawing international attention, not to mention condemnation from some quarters — the Turkish authorities have blocked all access to WordPress.com to viewers and bloggers alike. Although the youTube incident was briefly resolved after “offending videos” posted by Greek users “insulting the memory of Atatürk” were removed, it is completely unknown why the global and free blog site has been blocked by the Turkish state. Moreover, with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) recent lanslide re-election on July 22 and their raft of pro-European Union accession reforms in recent years, the clampdown on a major international platform for freedom of speech appears totally out of step with their philosophy, not to mention their renewed electoral mandate based on the performance over the last five years. Anybody now trying to access WordPress from within the borders of the Republic of Turkey are greeted with the message, “Access to this site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/195 of T.C. Fatih 2.Civil Court of First Instance.” Although Internet-savvy bloggers and readers alike can still gain (somewhat cumbersome access) through various software or reconfiguring their proxy servers, the move strikes at the very heart of freedom of speech from a country supposedly on the road to EU membership. This can only add to the controversy of the infamous Article 301 remaining on the statute books. In recent years numerous intellectuals and writers, such as 2006 Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and novelist Elif Şafak have all been tried under the auspices of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for “insulting Turkishness.”