Istanbul’s Şişli 2nd Criminal Court of Peace has banned world famous evolutionist Prof. Richard Dawkins’ internet site (richarddawkins.net) in Turkey on the grounds that Adnan Oktar’s personality was violated by this site.

The court reached the decision to ban the site on September 3. The site was accused of containing insults against Oktar’s (known as Harun Yahya too) book titled “Atlas of Creation”.

The only explanation given to the viewer is “Shut down by court order”

The internet users who try to reach the site come across a statement saying that ‘The access to the site has been banned by court order’; no explanations about why, when and by which court order the site has been banned are given. Oktar had managed to shut down the Google Groups in Turkey before as well.

According to Yasemin Arpa from NTV, Oktar filed a lawsuit for the damages of mental anguish against Oxford professor biologist and thinker Richard Dawkins in the amount of 8000 YTL (about 4000 Euro).  Dawkins' book The God Delusion is a best-seller in Turkey. 

Youtube, kliptube and geocities are still banned in Turkey

In addition to Dawkin’s site, video sharing sites Youtube, kliptube and geocities are still banned in Turkey.  In Turkey, internet sites are banned if their content is deemed harmful to children, encourage use of drugs, gambling, prostitution, dangerous elements for health, pornography, suicide and contain insults against Atatürk, founder of Turkey.

For example, Youtube has been banned for four months now for containing videos insulting to the memory of Atatürk.

In the case of the Kurdish media none of these charges matter

On the other hand, there are some internet sites that are banned for supporting the Kurdish cause or simply being pro-Kurdish. For example, the internet sites of the newspapers Yeni Özgür Politika (yeniozgurpolitika.org) and Özgür Gündem (ozgurgundem.org), Fırat News Agency (ANF) (firatnews.com), and rojaciwan. These sites were charged with doing propaganda work for the Kurdish Workers party (PKK). (EÖ/EÜ/TB)