Kurdish media outlets have released a statement condemning the recently increasing ban on Twitter accounts of Kurdish media outlets and journalists.

The statement reads;

“During the last years, the Middle East territory witnessed increasingly authoritarian policies of the AKP regime in Turkey. These authoritarian tendencies were accompanied by war-oriented policies both in Turkey and greater Middle East. To solidify its authoritarian state, the AKP regime has also been intervening on communication and various information channels as a major instrument. To give an instance, the mainstream Turkish media portrayed the slaughter of 34 Kurdish peasants by the Turkish army in Roboski as a legitimate move, and major Turkish newspapers and broadcasts claimed that these peasants were smugglers with the subtle implication that they deserved to be killed by the Turkish army.

Since July 2015, the Turkish state destroyed several Kurdish cities such as Cizre, Gever, Nusaybin, Sirnak, and Sur. The state security forces also murdered hundreds of Kurdish civilians including a 3 month-old baby, Miray in Cizre. However, the mainstream Turkish media completely ignored these events, and stayed completely loyal to the Turkish state, which committed dozens of serious war crimes within a year. IMC TV, an opposition news channel that documented Turkish state war crimes in the region, was omitted from satellite service unlawfully in February 2016.

In such a context, Kurds can get reliable information only from a few pro-Kurd media outlets and what is left of truly opposition media actors in Turkey. Increasingly so, Kurds and other opposition actors in Turkey started to rely on social media (i.e. Twitter and Facebook) to get more reliable information. However, the Turkish state is attempting to cut the information flow from these channels as well. For instance, 103 pro-Kurdish Twitter accounts including those of journalist Amed Dicle’s and of Democratic Region Party are withheld in Turkey.

Our demand from Twitter is to stop being a part of censorship regime in Turkey. Twitter administration should support freedom of information and freedom of expression rather than being a reinforcement for an authoritarian regime. Twitter should lift the unlawful restraint on these accounts. We will continue to voice our demand for freedom of expression and make our voice heard with hashtag #TurkeyBansTwitterAccounts

If Twitter insists on its decision to apply censorship on these accounts, we will boycott Twitter by deactivating hundreds of thousands of Twitter accounts simultaneously. Free media cannot be silenced!”

The blocked accounts of the journalists, newspapers and parties include;

@_DBPGenelMerkez

@ANFKURDi

@AmedDicleeT

@kcd_dtk

@OzgurrGundem