Access to web sites of Rudaw, Avesta blocked in Turkey

Access to web sites of Rudaw, Avesta blocked in Turkey
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Turkish authorities have blocked access to the websites of the Kurdish media company Rudaw and the Avesta publishing house on the grounds that they spread terrorist propaganda

Turkey on Wednesday cut off Internet access to Rudaw, a media outlet based in Iraq's Kurdistan region, and Avesta, a publishing house that publishes Kurdish books in Turkey, for allegedly carrying terrorist propaganda.

Free Web Turkey, a platform that monitors and documents Internet bans and access blocks in Turkey, wrote on Twitter that the website of Avesta Publications was blocked by the 4th Criminal Court in Ankara for "propaganda for the PKK/KCK organization."

Avesta Publications rejected accusations in a statement.

"Avestakitap.com shares nothing but the promotion and sale of our books. By banning books, this is de facto censorship, which is unacceptable," Avesta's statement said.

Avesta was founded in 1995 and has published over 700 books, mostly in Kurdish and Turkish. Many of its books have been banned, and the administrators have been sued over these books

Avesta received the Freedom of Thought Award from the Turkish Publishers Association in 2019 and was nominated for the Voltaire Award from the World Publishers Association in 2020.

On Tuesday, Turkey also blocked access to Eksi Sozluk, which has hundreds of thousands of registered authors and millions of users, without giving a reason.