Der Spiegel, Germany
March 9 2007

Virtual Mud Flung Between Greeks and Turks

A Turkish court this week temporarily shut off access to YouTube in
the country after a video insulted founding father Atatürk. Others
moved to defend the Turkish hero in cyber space.

Opponents of Turkish accession to the European Union like to cite the
country’s denial of freedom of speech, creeping nationalism and its
ongoing refusal to recognize Cyprus. This week, Turkey supplied
nay-sayers with ample fodder.

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.

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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.