Turkish Transportation Minister Ahmet Arslan has said a ban on online encyclopedia Wikipedia will remain in place in Turkey as long as it does not remove content that shows Turkey supporting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
In a controversial move, Turkey blocked access to Wikipedia in April 2017.
“As long as it [Wikipedia] shows Turkey, which has rendered more than 3,000 terrorists ineffective, as a supporter of DAESH [the Arabic acronym for ISIL], it will not be allowed to operate in Turkey,” said the minister in a statement on Friday.
The Ankara 1st Criminal Court of Peace ordered a ban on the website after Wikipedia reportedly refused to remove two English-language pages that claimed Ankara had supported jihadists in Syria.
The Turkish Telecommunications Authority (BTK) asked an Ankara court that a “protection measure” related to suspected Internet crimes be applied to Wikipedia.
The minister said Wikipedia editors who want to intervene in the “inaccurate content” from Turkey are prevented from doing so.