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Turkey is advocating the services of local messaging apps in the wake of Facebook plans to integrate the social network’s messaging services, a step critics say will weaken users’ protection against digital snooping and further tighten the police state grip on freedoms.
Last week WhatsApp, which was bought by Facebook in 2014, set out new terms asking users to agree for location and other personal data to be passed to its parent company, prompting many Turkish users to delete their WhatsApp accounts.
Spurring the exodus from WhatsApp, the head of the government’s digital office, Ali Taha Koc, called on Turks to “stand against fascism together”, a reference to a November speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which he called for a stance against “digital fascism”.
Children suffering from a deadly neuromuscular disorder have found themselves at the heart of political polarization in Turkey after the opposition called for extra funds for their ultra-expensive treatment.
Last Updated On: Jan 11 2021 11:28 Gmt+3
As Washington D.C erupted in political strife last week, Turkish politicians in the ruling coalition have found a new way to tarnish the reputation of their opponents.
Several Turkish politicians tied to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its partner far-right National Movement Party (MHP) took the D.C riots as an opportunity to rub past American criticisms of Turkey to respect democracy in their face.
On Wednesday, a violent mob of indignant supporters of United States President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building where members of Congress gathered to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the November presidential election.
ANKARA: The new year brought a new wave of censorship for Turkish media, signaling tough days ahead for independent journalism in the country.
On Thursday, prosecutors requested a sentence of up to 158 years in jail for Baris Pehlivan and Baris Terkoglu the editor-in-chief and news director, respectively, of dissident news site Oda-TV who face multiple charges related to their newly published book on Turkish domestic politics.
The two journalists are currently facing 14 separate investigations for criminal complaints mainly filed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s lawyers over claims made in the book.
Pehlivan and Terkoglu were on trial last year for charges relating to their report on the funeral of a Turkish spy who was killed in Libya. In that case, the prosecutors asked for 63 and 95 years of imprisonment respectively.
ANAKARA: A new poll showed a hostile picture among Turks to the integration of Syrian refugee population in the country. The survey, entitled “Dimensions of Polarization in Turkey 2020,” was conducted by Istanbul Bilgi University in cooperation with German Marshall Fund of the United States through face-to-face interviews across 29 cities with a representative sample of 4,000 people from Turkey’s adult population. It found that 86 percent of respondents want the 4 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey to go back home, a question that has become a common denominator across almost all political parties. More than 3.6 million refugees fled to Turkey following the civil war in Syria in 2011, but the Syrian community in Turkey has been the target of several violent attacks and murders over recent years.