Turkey Censors YouTube 482
FM Reader writes "After a controversial mock-up video reportedly submitted by a Greek member about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, Turkish courts ordered the national ISPs to ban the online video service, YouTube. YouTube hostnames are currently redirected at the DNS level to a page that announces the court order."
Super-Secret Uber Hacking Thing-a-ma-whatsit (Score:5, Informative)
# Unix/Linux/OS X
1. 'su'
2. 'echo "208.65.153.253 www.youtube.com" >>
# Windows
1. Start > Run > 'cmd'
2. 'echo 208.65.153.253 www.youtube.com >> c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts'
You may need to edit your hosts file with a text editor to ensure that it was properly edited. On Windows in particular, there may not be a line break added in. Just open the file, find the "208.", position the cursor in front of the "208." and press enter. Save the file.
There. All done.
As you can see, the Turkish government's solution is incredibly sophiticated and difficult to circumvent.
Here's an actual story on the issue. [jpost.com]
The long and short of it is that Turkey found the video "insulting" and hasn't even decided yet if the video is legally "wrong". So much for being a "democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic". (Taken from Wikipedia.)
How inconvenient (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Super-Secret Uber Hacking Thing-a-ma-whatsit (Score:4, Informative)
sudo bash
echo "208.65.153.253 www.youtube.com" >>
(can't just su on OSX usually - root has no password)
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Headache for EU negotiators (Score:5, Informative)
Emphasis is obviously mine. Bascially, Turkey could argue that their laws are not restrictive to free speech, and that their laws only "protect the morals [and] reputation" of the citizens of its country. (Both past and present.)
Other EU countries can try to make a stink about it, but I seriously doubt that anyone is going to push Turkey too hard.
Re:This is very European of them. (Score:5, Informative)
Narcistic Turkey vs. The World (Score:5, Informative)
Why do I say this? Just to make clear this new ruling is just a small symptom of a much wider problem. It shouldn't surprise us in any way, but merely drive home the point Turkey is currently rather distant from European ideas of how to apply state power. More insidiously, this new conflict also points at the ever-increasing difficulty of isolating minority opinions from outside critique - the only way to do it, ultimately, is the North Korean route. I don't think Turkey will do that - they have a very proud and nationalistic government, but it is not a dictatorship with the power to force the ever-increasing price of its ego issues on all of the population.
Re:Headache for EU negotiators (Score:4, Informative)
To them, it never happened. They should not be allowed to join the EU until they own up their atrocities, nor should they be supported or even considered.
Re:This is very European of them. (Score:4, Informative)
1. You live in Belarus.
2. You live in one of those countries where racist parties could be outlawed.
Although I don't believe that outlawing *any* opinion is a good idea, by no means is that worse than Turkey, where someone was convicted to a jail sentence when he referred to terrorist/freedom fighter(*) Ocalan as 'Mr. Ocalan'.
(*) Depends on whom you ask.
Re:Headache for EU negotiators (Score:5, Informative)
a country that is about one generation away from rule by Sharia
Have you been to Turkey? Do you know any Turks? I guess not. Last time I went to Turkey, I drank beer in cafes, saw attractive Turkish women walking around unaccompanied and never once felt uncomfortable as a "Westerner". Yup, there are problems in Turkey - the mistreatment of the large Kurdish minority as well as the nationalist posturing of some politicians and newspapers spring to mind - but to say it's almost a Sharia state is a joke.
Re:Headache for EU negotiators (Score:4, Informative)
Read the background to the partition of Cyprus. It came about after a coup was launched by the military junta running mainland Greece. The goal of the coup was to assassinate the Cypriot president and replace him with a puppet leader who would declare Cyprus part of Greece. This ran contrary to the agreements signed when Cyprus gained independence and was opposed by most Greek Cypriots as well the Turkish minority. Following the coup, Turkey invaded the Northern part of the Ireland to protect the large ethnic Turkish minority (who had often been treated as second class citizens by the ethnic Greeks since independence). Since then reunification attempts under the auspices of the EU and UN have failed, the Turkish Cypriots are mostly in favour, but the Greek Cypriots elected an strongly anti-reunification president to derail the process.
Re:Headache for EU negotiators (Score:3, Informative)
Re:This is very European of them. (Score:5, Informative)
Just as much as there is still no consensus in the US about the status of the Southern 'Freedom' fighters of the Civil War.
The Issue On Topic is that Present Day Turkey is still so unsure about it's reason of existence that it outlaws even the smallest forms of dissent.
The court's ruling that it is a punishable offence for a politician (Ahmet Türk) to refer to the head of the PKK as 'Mister' is a prime example.
A lot of terrorism would melt away if countries like Turkey could get to grips with the fact that people are different, even within their own borders and give them the respect they deserve like allow them to use their own language.
Re:This is very European of them. (Score:3, Informative)
And Ataturk himself wasn't into censorship (Score:5, Informative)
The ironic thing is that Ataturk himself wasn't big on censorship. He was something of a liberal dictator, and was responsible for turning Turkey into a secular, liberal democracy. Turkey is the only Islamic country in the Middle East that works.
Re:Headache for EU negotiators (Score:1, Informative)
I will go on and say that nationalism, radicalism serves no purpose for humanity, it is racism in it's purist form and it only serves to treat another person with less respect than you would like to be treated yourself. For shame, I get sick when I think of all the people that died and still die for such petty things.
A little info on who Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal) is (Score:5, Informative)
Actually Mustafa Kemal is a jacobin, someone who is extremely in line with French Revolution ideals. (Same ideals were in fact envisioned before french revolution in france with the likes of voltaire, rousseau and the contemporaries, and put forth as bill of rights in American Revolution and united states's founding ideals).
By that time, Turkey was Ottoman Empire. The 'holy state' understanding was in much heights after the ending of reign of Sultan Abdulhamid, who was an absolute monarchist, and ruled with an iron fist. Actually, that iron fist regime has ended with the intervention of modernists in the military, the Jonturks, who was roughly french revolution idealists, jacobenites, who Mustafa Kemal was a member of. They have led an army from modern day greece to istanbul, and effected the removal of Abdulhamid.
Pre world war I and in world war i, mustafa kemal shown much aptidude and prowess as a commander. In gallipoli, most known examples of his profess in matters military. This, have put him in much renowned position among the military commanders.
It was known that he was a republican (not in u.s. sense, but in a sense that is much more in line with Danton), and he and similar people wouldnt accept subsequent invasion and occupation and partition of turkey with the proposed Sevrés treaty that effectively turned Anatolia into modern day yugoslavia (you got my meaning), and therefore he was appointed to a non-existent, fud army by the Sultan (then Mehmed) to an obscure region of turkey so that he wouldnt stir anything up.
Instead, he resigned from the military, and Jacobenites (Jonturks, as they are known in turkish lingo) have gathered up in eastern anatolia, called for national assembly to be formed without approval from istanbul government, and created a national assembly with elected representatives there.
From that point on, the government in ankara, which was a rebel ragtag's convention in istanbul government's and occupation forces' eyes, was de facto government of anatolia.
Then this government proceeded to gather the spread-out resistance movements to the occupation (english, french, italian and then later greek) occupations of anatolia, and turned them into a regular army.
what ensues is known as 'battle of independence' in turkish history, which roughly summarizes a major war against occupying greek forces, who were being used as a thug by the british government in power than, and some local fighting against the french in southern regions of the turkey. curiously italians and turkish did not fight at all, italian occupation of allotted territories have been uneventful, neither side complaining from each other, and passing time peacefully until ankara government's victory against greek forces and establishment of turkish republic and subsequent removal of italian forces from turkish territories, which italy did themselves by their decision, again, uneventfully.
fight against the greek invasion, who was fueled by extremist nationalists in greece was bloody though, and many people died in both sides. fight ended when the final greek units were pushed out of izmir, in western turkey.
occupation forces in istanbul, who were british, did not create a skirmish with turkish forces, a standoff ensued, which ended with english forces pulling out as a result of Lausanne treaty, in which international community recognized the now Turkish Republic.
Immediately after, Mustafa Kemal embarked in many reforms. This is the main issue why Mustafa Kemal is idolized.
First, he ended the khaliphate, effectively ending mohammad's successors combined rule of matters religional and governmental. Secular state was introduced, based on rationale. This annoyed the hell out of islamic segments of turkey.
Second, he instituted educational reforms. There were 1 or 2 % people who were capable of reading & writing in turkey. After 20 years, this rate has gone to, what, 70% or so, if
Re:Headache for EU negotiators (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Super-Secret Uber Hacking Thing-a-ma-whatsit (Score:2, Informative)
Last year the president of Turkish Historical Society get arrested in Switzerland while talking in a conference about Armenian Genocide.
IS THIS THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH ?
Check this page out, http://www.ermenisorunu.gen.tr/english/intro/inde