ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) demanded Thursday the restoration by Facebook of its online page, which has been closed down by the social networking site.
“We like to think the whole thing is a misunderstanding and demand they open our page immediately,” Zınar Karavil, the BDP’s social media officer, told Rudaw.
In response to BDP objections, Facebook announced that some of the party’s pages were taken down because of praise for the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey and internationally listed as a terrorist organization.
“They have to prove that our page praised the PKK as they claimed,” Karavil said.
“This is either a mistake or their intentions are not good. Most probably they (Facebook) are unaware of the present political developments of Turkey,” he added.
The BDP said that allegations of support for the PKK on its pages are untrue.
“We are only responsible for the verified account of our General Headquarters page, and in its content there is no praise for the PKK,” Karavil said.
He added that Facebook was probably unaware of the political situation in Turkey, referring to a slow-moving peace process between Ankara and the PKK, which has fought a three-decade war for greater Kurdish rights.
“Facebook is like an unsociable kid, too busy with his computer and not knowing about what is happening outside his room,” Karavil said.
He added that a group of academics and experts from the BDP had a meeting with Facebook Europe Director Richard Allan in London a while ago, and that he also had allegedly admitted that Facebook rules need to be updated.
Academic Ozlem Galip, who attended the meeting with Allan in London in September, told Rudaw that Facebook’s attitude was very positive during the meeting. "Yet it appears that they are not going to fulfill their promises," she said.
She explained that the meeting was held because Facebook’s censure of the PKK and its leader Abdullah Ocalan from pages related to the BDP.
"They said, they are not doing this as a result of an agreement with the AKP (ruling Turkish party), but rather according to the court decisions in Turkey. They have accepted that so many things have changed in Turkey and Facebook also has to update its rules which were written five years ago,” she said.
Facebook also closed down the pages of Yuksekova Haber, Otekilerin Postası, Yeni Ozgur Politika, Kurdi Muzik and other groups related to the Kurdish movement. They included the personal fan pages of parliament deputies Altan Tan, Sırrı Sureya Onder, Hasip Kaplan and Leyla Zana.
The closures have created a strong reaction among Turkey’s large Kurdish population.
Bircan Yorulmaz, a peace activist and member of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) which is an umbrella group of the BDP, told Rudaw that she strongly condemns Facebook’s attitude.
“This is censure. This is very serious. This is unacceptable. By doing this they are closing the channels of our people. We should not let this to happen,” she vowed.
“There is a double play here on behalf of the government in Turkey,” Sezai Temelli, an academic and HDP board member, charged in comments to Rudaw.
“In this age censorship is not going to work anymore; we will fight to change this,” he said, accusing the Turkish government of being behind Facebook’s action.
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