KASTAMONU, Turkey
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the popular social media platform Twitter had been blocked because it did not obey court decisions.
Addressing a rally of ruling AK Party supporters in the northern city of Kastamonu, Erdogan accused several accounts held on Twitter of violating the personal rights of many people, including himself and his ministers, by delivering fake voice recordings, allegedly belonging to him and other officials.
"We are not against use of advanced technology, but unlawful use of it is not acceptable," said Erdogan.
The Turkish leader also accused the Gulen movement led by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen of being against the Kurdish peace process.
Erdogan said that the prosecutors linked to Gulen had released accounts of talks between Turkish officials and outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, and had attempted to arrest the chief of the Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT).
Erdogan also alleged that MIT officials were manhandled by gendarmerie as a MIT truck was stopped on its way to Syria last month: “The MIT personnel are made to lie down and kicked by several officers, even the security officers of a foreign army would not do that, but the 'parallel state' did," he said.
Touching upon the downing of a Syrian warplane by Turkish F-16 jets on Sunday Erdogan claimed that it was “interesting” that the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader reacted to it before the Syrian regime.
"CHP leader defends the Baath regime because they are not different," said Erdogan.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
