Turkey Blocks Access To Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook (itpro.co.uk)

Turkey has blocked Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube, according to censorship monitoring site, Turkey Blocks. From a report on IT Pro: The group broke the news today around 1am local time, saying the government was throttling these services. This is a method of slowing down websites to the extent that they become difficult to use or unusable. Initially, issues with the social media and messaging apps detected on national provider TTNet, Turkcell, and they were soon reported on other big internet providers as well. The block follows the arrest of 11 politicians from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) overnight in the south-east of the country. Many reports are linking the social media block to these arrests, with the HDP the main opposition party to that of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Comments

Turkey and Kurds

[unixisc]

And this, is the reason that the US can't have an open-ended alliance w/ the Kurds. The Kurds, whether in Iraq or Syria or even Turkey, would be happy to join forces to combat Jihadist terror in their lands, be it ISIS, Saddam, Shias or Sunnis. Just one problem - Turkey

If the US followed a policy that made sense, it would have endorsed an independent Kurdistan, where not just Kurds, but Christian Assyrians, Chaldeans, Yazidis all could have lived peacefully - they would not have been a wannabe Islamic theocracy like their Arab neighbors. This would have encompassed Iraqi, Syrian and Iranian Kurdish lands. There would have been no reason to pander to the likes of Rouhani or Assad, so such a place would have been a safe haven for people of the region who are not Muslim fanatics

Reason they couldn't - Turkey. A country that has been on the back of the Kurds not only as an Ottoman Caliphate, but also as a secular Kemalist state. Once upon a time, during the Cold War, it might have made sense to pay lip service to Turkish sentiments. Not since 1991, and certainly not since Erdogan came to power

If Trump gets elected, then one way he can work w/ the Russians - while Russia helps Assad completely regain power, the US can help the Kurds of Syria and Iraq both unite unto one Kurdistan. No need to pay lip service to either Ankara or Baghdad or Damascus. Let there be an independent Kurdish land, and within Syria, maybe in Tadmor, let there be a safe zone for Syrians that's not controlled by Assad, ISIS, FAS or any of the combatants.

As far as Turkey goes, Trump is right about NATO. It is a Cold War relic, given that the membership still reflects what it was when the Soviets were the adversary. Since 2001, when Islam replaced Communism as the main enemy of the West, it makes more sense to form a new alliance of non-Muslim countries in the periphery - Russia, Israel, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and some others. Maybe expand that alliance to the East to include Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka. But keep Turkey out!!!

Re:Turkey and Kurds

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

As far as Turkey goes, Trump is right about NATO. It is a Cold War relic, given that the membership still reflects what it was when the Soviets were the adversary. Since 2001, when Islam replaced Communism as the main enemy of the West, it makes more sense to form a new alliance of non-Muslim countries in the periphery - Russia, Israel, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and some others. Maybe expand that alliance to the East to include Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka. But keep Turkey out!!!

I liked your suggestion of an independent Kurdistan, but I can't get on board with this one. The only thing keeping the Baltic States independent is NATO. I have no doubt that if not for NATO Putin would have already manufactured a crisis in them where ethnic Russians were supposedly at risk and used that to justify invading them. The whole reason NATO exists is to protect member states from Russian invasion. That's a real threat. Russia has even tried to intimidate Finland and Sweden, the first one especially, by warning them of the dire consequences of joining NATO. However, Russian threats to both have pushed them closer than ever to joining as his air force's fly bys have made both think that they may have to join to be protected.

Additionally your lists are well-intentioned but not likely. Ehtopia and South Sudan are of questionable stability. Cyprus is completely under the control of Turkey in the north (it invaded in the early 70s to "protect" ethnic Turks and it never left). Serbia and Russia have some bizarre ties that don't really to me make a lot of sense, but they exist nonetheless and Serbia is if anything somewhat of a Putin apologist. Greece has always been kind of iffy in NATO although they have dropped the constant anti-American bs that propped up some pretty bad governments they had in the past. Thailand is now so pro-China that their usefulness to the USA is really under question. The Philippines have a president who is either mentally ill or at best badly playing over head in a game he can't win. Myanmar is still too closely tied to China, although that may change. I'm not sure that Sri Lanka wants to do much more than focus on their own issues at the moment.

Re:Productivity increases by 200%

[c]

If they go away, what exactly is lost?

I hear they're a handy way for ordinary people to make fun of particularly thin-skinned aspiring despots...

Re:Again?

[NatasRevol]

Will it be more or less scary when the headline reads 'Trump' instead of 'Turkey'?

Re:Again?

[Oswald McWeany]

I think it's almost certain that the coup wasn't really a coup. It's a shame, Turkey was really making strides towards being a true modern democracy until Erdogan came along. Even before the coup he was beginning to show signs of Trump-like behavior. I think democracy is done for Turkey now, at least Turkey is cooked as long as Erdogan lives.

Re:Productivity increases by 200%

[Anonymous Coward]

These are basically glorified chat apps and scrapbooks for neurotic people to try to appear important online so they can ignore their failed lives. If they go away, what exactly is lost?

While we may consider these applications to be casual needs for our entertainment, they can be effective means of communication. The purpose of blocking access is for the government to severely limit the population's ability to communicate and organize against it. Erdogan feels that his power is being threatened, so he and his government are going to do everything they can to retain control. The loss of any particular service isn't what's important - the overall situation related to a government crackdown on its people is the big picture... and it's troubling.