Turkish court upholds appeal to end Twitter blockage
27 Mar 2014
A Turkish court upheld an appeal today to end a blockage of Twitter that led to public outrage and international condemnation only days ahead of the critical local elections, Reuters reported.
It was not however, immediately clear when the bar would be removed if at all, although deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc urged the country's telecoms authority, which implemented the ban, to respect the court order.
''We abide by the court rulings, that's what the constitution orders. We may not like them, but we abide by them. If this decision is genuine ... then what TIB needs to do after this is obvious,'' Arinc told reporters in Hatay in televised comments.
Turkey's courts had barred access to Twitter a little over a week before elections, as a corruption scandal swirled around prime minister Tayyip Erdogan with the social media awash in evidence of government wrongdoing (See: Twitter blocked in Turkey over graft recordings).
Twitter was yesterday accused by Erdogan, who has repeatedly defended the ban during rallies for elections set for Sunday, of threatening national security.
The election according to commentators would test whether the allegations had damaged him politically.
Erdogan said in a TV interview that the government's problem was not Twitter itself but its approach. He added, the court ruling was conveyed to Twitter, it did not listen to it.
Erdogan had earlier threatened similar action against Facebook and YouTube.
According to the PM his political opponents were using those networks to fabricate recording that allegedly exposed corruption in his inner circle.
Erdogan, a leader of the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party told Turkish television, ''We will take the necessary steps in the strongest way … because these people… encourage every kind of immorality and espionage for their own ends.''
Ergodan said, portions of his recorded telephone conversations were edited to covey false and misleading information.
Erdogan, in a speech last week told supporters, ''We will not let our people be ruined by Facebook and YouTube.''
However, Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, a co-founder of the AK Party, opposing the claim, stated that removing the networks was ''out of the question.''
