DBTB Condemns Censorship of WordPress.com by Turkey
By Administrator in Don't Block the Blog! | 4 comments
DON’T BLOCK THE BLOG CONDEMNS CENSORSHIP OF WORDPRESS.COM BY THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT
Download the PDF Version of the Press Release
Don’t Block the Blog would like to express its dissatisfaction at the recent development in Turkey where the Turkish Government has been served with a court order to enforce a blanket censorship on the entire WordPress.com blog hosting website, forcing all WordPress blogs to become inaccessible to the people of Turkey. This development occurred because one specific blog, AdnanOktar.wordpress.com, criticised Adnan Oktar (Haryun Yahya) a Turkish proponent of creationism in the debates of evolution vs. creationism. Oktar has put forth numerous books under the name Harun Yahya arguing against evolution, and has been widely criticized for his methods in promoting his religious viewpoints.
The lawyers of Adnan Oktar have accused a Turkish blogger, Edip Yuksel, of running a slander campaign against their client, Adnan Oktar. In this regard upholding their petition in court the Fatih 2nd Civil Court of First Instance, number 2007/195, has ordered the Turkish authorities to block all access to the entire WordPress.com domain in Turkey. Oktar’s lawyers go on to argue with the administrators of the WordPress organization to remove and prohibit any blogs on the site that may contain any reference to Adnan Oktar or his pen name Harun Yahya, or any combination of the four names.
This is an attack on the freedom of expression for the people of Turkey, and in this regard the Don’t Block the Blog organization strongly opposes this and all forms of censorships being enforced by the Turkish government, be it one site or a blanket ban on over 12 millions blogs on the free hosting servers.
The Don’t Block the Blog organization joins hands with millions of Turkish bloggers and blog readers to protest against this blatant suppression of free speech. Don’t Block the blog is now positioned as an international organization to protest against censorship of blogs worldwide We urge the Turkish authorities to undo this measure as it hinders free flow on information and also definitely casts a very negative image of Turkey to the world.
DON’T BLOCK THE BLOG strongly opposes any form of internet censorship, and requests the support of national and international bloggers, media, and free speech organizations to help our cause by continuing to highlight the issue of the unfair blanket ban of blogs
Background:
The DON’T BLOCK THE BLOG (DBTB) campaign (Help-Pakistan.com/main/) was launched by Dr. Awab Alvi and Omer Alvie on 3rd March, 2006 in order to highlight the unfair blanket ban of the blogspot domain and additionally to show support for free internet speech in general. It has slowly progressed to an more widespread international organization protesting against all forms of censorship of blogs the world over and in this effort has established itself on a new domain DBTB.org for this purpose
Edip Yuksel | Aug 23, 2007 | Reply
The accusation of the Turkish lawyer, Mr. Kalkan, who represents a control-freak client who has blocked hundreds of websites before blocking wordpress, is not accurate.
I do not have a single blog on wordpress. Unfortunately, last year I came across a blog, which was using my name and posting a few articles of mine. However, if the owners of the wordpress check their database, they will know that none of those blogs have anything to do with me.
Occasionally, some of the former cult members who were spiritually, emotionally, and financially abused by Adnan contact me for help; but I know only a few of them personally, and I never recommended them to use wordpress for their fight against Adnan and the Turkish courts protective of him. It was their decision to fight the Turkish courts through blogging.
Personally, I do not approve blog-spamming; but knowing the abuse and suppression these young men and women have encountered in Turkey, I can understand and respect their motives. Their overuse or abuse of wordpress was their only chance to fight against a system that unfortunately has protected a cult leader that abused his victims to their bones in multiple ways.
After Adnan Oktar banned my website, http://www.19.org, I hired an attorney in Turkey. (I live in Arizona). After spending several thousand dollars on attorney fees, after getting another court order unblocking my website for Turkish visitors, after more than a year, we are still unable to actually unblock the website. Why? Perhaps, the cult has infiltrated to the Turkish Telecom company, as it infiltrated to some key government offices. This cult is no different than a malicious virus.
Thus, after all of this, I asked a friend of mine to manage a website (not wordpress), http://www.yahyaharun.com, to expose the real motives and works of this cult, which is harming many bright young Turkish children of rich families.
I stand by every statement I write and I never hide my name in my work. I am not scared of Turkish government nor the USA-Inc. I am a free-minded person and I support the freedom of expression of every idea, including those of my enemies. If you check the forums of http://www.19.org and its archives, you will see hundreds of criticism posted against my work and person; some even containing obscene insults against me.
As a principle, I never use obscene language and I am mindful of the moral implications of accusing someone, including my enemies, falsely. As I said, my fight against this cult and its leader was initiated by Adnan, the so-called Yahya Harun, not me. I am a very busy person, and I wish my path was never crossed with that cult leader.
I invite every rational freedom-lover to stand up against this cult for the following reasons:
1. Adnan Oktar’s cult is a fascist organization.
2. Adnan Oktar’s cult exploits young and gullible spiritually, emotionally, personally, and financially.
3. Adnan Oktar’s cult isolates the children of wealthy people from their parents.
4. Adnan Oktar’s cult uses black-mail and bribery to frustrate those who were harmed by the cult.
5. Adnan Oktar’s cult promotes pseudoscience. For instance, it promotes false ideas about the theory of evolution.
6. Adnan Oktar’s cult promotes racism, more specifically, anti-Jewish ideas.
7. Adnan Oktar’s cult considers Adnan Oktar as the promised Mahdi (Muslim version of Messiah) and propagates silly stories fabricated in medieval times.
8. Adnan Oktar’s cult exploits the work of cult members and puts the brand name “Harun Yahya” on all the books and videos.
9. Adnan Oktar’s cult plagiarizes the work of others (including mine), and attributes them to Adnan Oktar under his pen name, Harun Yahya.
10. To appeal masses, Adnan Oktar’s cult fakes as Sunni, yet among themselves they follow the cult’s rules.
11. According to numerous reports, Adnan Oktar’s cult engages in group sex and promote anal sex with girls they consider “concubines”.
12. Adnan Oktar’s cult uses money, political connections, and backward Turkish legal system to censor the former cult members to expose the secrets of the cult.
Peace,
Edip
car id | Jul 5, 2011 | Reply
Free speech in the internet is a really vague notion. The principle of freedom of speech is also embedded in the Internet’s robust architecture. Because of the Internet’s robust design, it is impossible to completely block access to information except in very limited and controlled circumstances, such as when blocking access to a specific site from a home computer, or when using a firewall to block certain sites from employees on a workplace network.