ANKARA
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party has appealed to the Constitutional Court to restore access to the video sharing site YouTube.
Sezgin Tanrikulu, Deputy Chairman of the party known as CHP, said Tuesday the block violated human rights.
Youtube has remained blocked since March 27 after a wiretapped top security meeting on Syria appeared on the site.
An Ankara court had decided to lift the ban last week but backtracked until the site removed links with legally questionable content.
- Block 'unacceptable'
In his written statement, Tanrikulu accused the ruling AK Party of restricting freedoms.
"AK Party administration and (Prime Minister) Recep Tayyip Erdogan insist on preventing all kind of freedoms while we strive to protect core human rights such as freedom of thought and expression,” he said.
“Freedom of expression is not unlimited. But blocking all thought and expression different then theirs, as (AK Party) tries to do, is unacceptable," Tanrikulu said.
He added that rights and freedoms are beyond borders, warning of isolation on the international arena if Turkey did not adapt to international norms.
Earlier, Head of Turkish Bars Association, Metin Feyzioglu also appealed to the Constitutional Court for lifting the ban.
A Turkish court on Friday night ruled that YouTube should continue to be blocked, overturning a previous decision on the grounds that the popular video sharing site still hosted allegedly illegal content.
On Thursday, Turkey lifted a separate block on micro-blogging site Twitter following an ruling of the Constitutional Court.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
