>Really? I've seen a lot of anti-american stuff on youtube but then I never followed up to see if it was removed later or not.

Yes, according to an article I read in San Francisco Chronicle (and others elsewhere, e.g., http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/10/youtube-folds-turkey-lifts-ban/), YouTube eventually buckled and removed the offending Ataturk video after receiving complaints from numerous Turkish officials and individuals.

One of the very fundamental political differences between US/EU and Turkey is that in the "West" we have commonly acknowledged and accepted protection of free speech (for better or for worse <g>), so pretty much anything goes. Not so in Turkey, where artists among others can be tried and sentenced to jail for offending the rather vague "anti-Turkishness" laws. For example, one of my very favorite authors, the Turkish nobelist Orhan Pamuk ("Snow", etc.) barely avoided this type of trial, mainly because he was just "too famous to handle" (for more info, see http://www.toplumpostasi.net/index.php/cat/9/news/9255/PageName/English). Same thing with a woman writer, Elif Shafak (see http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-19-turkish-author_x.htm). Additionally, a newspaper editor with and Armenian (= "antiturkish") slant was recently shot dead in front of his office in Istanbul in bright daylight -- an action that Turkish officials and a lot of Turks loudly condemned, though... The Armenian question -- was there or was there not a genocide of some 1.5 million Armenians as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing in the end of 1800's -- is a quick way to land yourself in jail, or worse, should you be publicly of the opinion that the genocide DID happen.

This law is but one of the big reasons why EU is more than wary about accepting Turkey into the union. There is a lot of talk about abolisihing the law now, so we'll see what will happen. Turkey already dropped death sentence from their law enforcement arsenals, because that was a definite show stopper for their hopes to join EU, so this law may eventually go away through the same door.

EOPSL (End Of Political Science Lecture)



Pertti

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>>Cetin:
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>>I assume you are talking about the Ataturk -video and its anti-Turkishness aspects. YouTube pulled it out as soon as they got complaints from Turkey, but the last I heard Turkey blocked YouTube anyway. Just like they don't look kindly at people writing about Armenians or other historical stuff that may or may not have happened, officially.
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>>Different country, different mindset. Wouldn't fly over here.
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>>Pertti
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>>>>Thanks, Cetin - I started watching the video on their site last night but got interrupted and will got back to it today.
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>>>>BTW - what's your issue with YouTube? Which criminals in particular ? ( I've not watched too much on the site but seemed more "Another site helping people with nothing better to do " < g > )
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>>>Well Charles,
>>>Youtube started to publish some video edits that contain direct insult to our country. They do not seem to care what is published just publish anything there. Probably soon that site would also be the portal for terrorists to exchange their plans.
>>>Cetin