Turkey is Typing....Wordpress Still Blocked

Last week Sami Ben Gharbia did an excellent posting about the blockage of the Wordpress blogging platform in Turkey, this week we will examine what Turkish bloggers have to say about it. There is anger, resentment, and sense of utter amazement at the absurdness of the situation. And yet, there is a powerful spirit of strength in combating this ban. Many Turkish bloggers and expat bloggers feel that the recent banning of Wordpress in Turkey is not only a sign of things to come, but a cause for embarrassment. James in Turkey sums up the history of Turkish censorship well.

Turkey has banned WordPress, the blogging platform. This is not a move without precedent; the popular definitions site ekşisözlük and, more famously, YouTube have both been blocked in the past. Turk Telekom's virtual monopoly on internet access in Turkey makes a ban an easy thing to enforce. There is, after all, just the one service provider to submit a court order to.

Four injured in PKK bomb attack on cargo train in eastern Turkey

Four people were injured Monday morning in a bomb attack on a cargo train in eastern Turkey, the Anadolu news agency reported. The explosives were placed on railway tracks in the province of Elazig and exploded when a freight train was passing. Anadolu reported that rebels from the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) were responsible for the attack. The four injured were all working onboard the train. They were taken to a local hospital for treatment.