Dear Danny,

I’m an Italian living in Turkey. Even if some political behaviors are like you wrote at, I guess you probably haven’t up-to-date informations.

First of all: The BTK act for internet filtering has been withdrawn due to the uprising in May (they were more than the 60.000 you mentioned. Local press talked about 2 million people) and no citizen has been asked to choose an access packet. All the sites you mentioned are accessible right now. I tried one by one while I was reading and I can access to all of them, with no ban.

About the internet security: This is an argument used all over the world. For istance, in Australia they have the strongest internet ban in the Western Countries. The EU, also, said they would adopt an internet filtering called Virtual Schengen Border, aimed to block the sites outside EU.

About The Limit of Press Freedom: It comes from an outdated law that still rules using penal right and not the civil right. So, if you have sued by someone for damages, and you are judged guilty by a court with a regular trial (there is the independence of judiciary system), you’ll be arrested because the law is like that and not because someone wants to get them arrested.

About Kurds:. What you have written is only one side of the question. You didn’t mention that the actual government has opened a deep dialogue for peace with the PKK since 2002 or 2003. The tension has increased this summer because PKK attacked police and military in south east, killing more than 100 persons. The bombing in Ankara is the last of a long tail of TERRORISM engaged by PKK.

Turkey has a long journey to improve its democracy, but we have to consider that all changes has been beginning since less than 10 years ago. As a western person, I can say that the today’s Turkey is a dictatorship such as U.S., Italy, Germany, France, etc.