from thefreeonline on 26th February 2023 by SCF, Al-Monitor, and Turkish Minute .. .
see SCF Report Below..Turkey’s Transnational Repression: Abuse of asset freezing mechanisms under the pretext of prevention of terrorist financing . Download PDF
Turkish authorities ban access to 340 more URLs and websites
A Turkish court on Wednesday blocked access in Turkey to 340 more websites and URLs, including news websites, blogs and social media accounts, at the request of the Security Directorate General, the Mezopotamya news agency (MA) reported.
According to a decision by the Ankara 4th Criminal Court of Peace, the URLs and websites were blocked due to their attempts to legitimize the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and for disseminating terrorist propaganda.
More than 349,000 websites banned in Turkey in last 5 years (Aug 16, 2021). A total of 349,763 websites were banned in Turkey between 2016 and 2020, according to the 2020 annual report of the Freedom of Expression Association’s (İFÖD) EngelliWeb initiative. The number since 2006 has reached 467,011, with 58,809 website bans in 2020, the report says.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.
The blocked addresses include the website of Dutch freelance journalist and author Frederike Geerdink, the pro-Kurdish media group Rudaw, Avesta Publications and the Kurdish Twitter account of MA.
Geerdink said she would take legal action against the decision.
see SCF Report Below..Turkey’s Transnational Repression: Abuse of asset freezing mechanisms under the pretext of prevention of terrorist financing . Download PDF
Journalist Fehim Işık, who posted the full list of blocked URLs on Twitter, said despite the bans, people will still find a way to access information.
Turkish authorities have in the last few years cracked down on websites, social media accounts and posts especially those considered to support “terrorism,” but this has led to accusations that freedom of expression has been curtailed.
Rights groups routinely expose the Turkish government for keeping the press under control by imprisoning journalists, closing down media outlets, overseeing the purchase of media brands by pro-government conglomerates and using regulatory authorities to exert financial pressure, especially after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan survived a failed coup in July 2016.
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‘TheFreeOnline’ blog banned since 2018 in Turkey with Dozens more pro Rojava and anti Fascist sites
checked on 25th Feb 2023.
Check your site free HERE https://www.comparitech.com/privacy-security-tools/blockedinturkey/ , many blocked sites advise using a VPN to gain access, or change their name or domain.
We have received copies from WordPress.com of Court Orders granted to Turkey to order them to ban this blog thefreeonline in Turkey and for internet users ”originating on Turkey”and also around 50 more blogs for posts against fascism, racism and patriarchy by the ‘elected dictator’ Erdogan and in favour or Democratic Confederalism. 2018 ( see list below, includes Latuff Cartoons, Desert Peace, Uprooted Palestinians, etc).
thefreeonline is a modest blog which promotes a utopian novel called The Free and posts relevant news, etc, in this case about the inspiring bottom up democratic revolution in Rojava, which has been brutally repressed in Turkey itself and now in Afrin with the Turkish invasion.
You can’t read thefreeonline.wordpreess.com anymore in Turkey (except with a Vpn or Tor) , or if you’re a person ”originating in Turkey” (we’re not sure how that works, but the order seems to aim at blogs translating or sharing news from exiled Turkish people and supporters)..
The ban includes the suppression of much more frequented sites, see list below, and there are hundreds of thousands more.
Perhaps Google and other blog and website hosts have followed wordpress’s example of refusing to appeal the banning orders.
WordPress’s statement says ”we must comply to keep WordPress.com accessible for everyone in Turkey. We will not be challenging this order in court”. In other words Erdogan is blackmailing again, threatening to ban all WordPress.com blogs from Turkey (as they did before) unless those critical of him are suppressed.
To help, complain or comment to wordpress.com they give this email> Support <legal@wordpress.com>
We could fill pages with a list of documented blackmail scams by Erdogan over the years, one of his most disgusting being extracting billions of euros in EU tax money in exchange for blocking refugee boats. This while exploiting the same refugees as illegal semi slave labour and recruiting them as jihadi mercenaries to invade and ”ethnically cleanse” (a euphemism for genocide) Rojava and now parts of Northern Iraq. see.. Erdoğan threatens the world with exporting jihadist terrorists ..
Below is a list of posts on thefreeonline which were cited by The Turkish prosecutors as evidence that the site should be banned. see list of more banned sites further below.
- https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/erdogans-dawn-raids-899-more-hostages-seized/ This is a typical short post, shared from kurdiscat which details in English and Spanish about one of the earlier neo-fascist style purges jailing 899 leftist, feminist and Kurdish activists, news which never appeared in the mainstream western media.
The post includes links to posts that expose Erdogan’s brutal mass murders in his own country. Including the shocking post ‘Genocide in Europe: Nusaybin surrenders after 74 days ..in total ruins and deafening silence‘, which was translated by thefreeonline.
see also.. People of Turkey still denied access to Wikipedia – Wikimedia Blog
other thefreeonline posts cited by the Turkish prosecutor
- https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2017/01/29/turkish-state-terror-jails-191-reporters/ Typically Erdogan issues a banning order to help suppress news that he’s jailed 191 journalists for criticizing him. The latest news (July 2018) is that he will invent laws by decree to legalise permanently the dictatorial powers of the State of Emergency. ANHA English
- https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/spain-now-7th-biggest-arms-suppliersells-to-turkish-dictator/
- https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/massive-voter-fraud-mars-turkey-referendum. Erdogan is a great fan and imitator of Adolf Hitler.
- In this case he closed down nearly all media except that of his own party, arrested, purged or fired hundreds of thousands of people on suspicion, then called a referendum and even then had to fudge the figures as he still might have lost!
- https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/fascism-in-turkey/ It’s noteworthy that two specifically anti fascist posts are on the prosecutor’s list, though thefreeonline has yet to share a post on the role of the deep state and the fascist ‘Grey Wolves’ behind the scenes.
- https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/demo-vs-fascism-in-turkey-
- https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2016/07/25/arrests-and-deaths-in-kurdistan/ This post details the arrest and imprisonment for 3 years of journalist #ZehraDogan, for publishing a single watercolour painting, based on a copy of a press photo, of the Nusaybin massacre ordered by Erdogan. Below is a copy of the painting and original photo and a mural by Banksy supporting her, but she is one of thousands, including elected mayors and many who merely criticised Erdogan on Facebook, who are rotting on Turkish jails, while the now all powerful ‘elected dictator’ is cynically if reluctantly supported by EU money, Russian patronage, US/NATO armaments, and now even wordpress.com.
The painting that Zehra was jailed for
LIST OF BLOGS AND OFFENDING POSTS SENT BY THE TURKISH PROSECUTORS TO WORDPRESS.COM
T. C.ISTANBUL6. SULH CRIMINAL PROHIBITION2018/3996 D.
Topic: Internet Access Blocking accordance with the decision of the judges:
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Turkey’s Transnational Repression: Abuse of asset freezing mechanisms under the pretext of prevention of terrorist financing
By SCF May 13, 2022
This report focuses on how the Turkish government’s decisions to freeze assets based on the pretext of preventing the financing of terrorism have been weaponized to suppress critics abroad as a further means of Turkey’s transnational repression.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s long arm has reached tens of thousands of Turkish citizens abroad while Turkey has been experiencing a deepening human rights crisis since a coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
The Turkish government has been carrying out an extraordinary campaign of transnational repression against its critics overseas since the failed coup.
The methods used in the government’s continuing transnational repression against dissidents have been well documented by SCF………
Why did Turkey ban a famous Brazilian cartoonist?
Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff talks to Al-Monitor about his cartoons depicting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which are now banned in Turkey. … January 22, 2016
Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff finalizes a cartoon after an interview with Reuters in Rio de Janeiro, – REUTERS/Sergio Moraes
The Free 