Turkey blocks YouTube ‘as threat to national security’

Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan yesterday denounced as "villainous" the leaking of a recording of top security officials discussing possible military action in Syria to video-sharing site YouTube. Turkish authorities ordered a shutdown of the site.

Mr Erdogan’s foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the posting, an audio file with photographs of the officials involved, a “declaration of war” – an apparent reference to an escalating power struggle between Mr Erdogan and rivals.

The anonymous posting followed similar releases on social media in recent weeks that Erdogan has cast as a plot by his political enemies, particularly a Turkish Islamic cleric based in the United States, to unseat him ahead of March 30th elections. But it took the campaign to a higher level, impinging on a highly sensitive top-level meeting of security officials.

“They even leaked a national security meeting,” Mr Erdogan said at a campaign rally. “This is villainous, this is dishonesty ... Who are you serving by doing audio surveillance of such an important meeting?”

The recording referred to was of intelligence chief Hakan Fidan discussing possible military operations in Syria with Mr Davutoglu, deputy chief of military staff Yasar Guler and other officials. – (Reuters)