I'm suspecting that I become the first target of the new "Internet filter," adopted by our democracy-loving government.
Despite all efforts, emrekizilkaya.com, which I directed to my about.me profile, cannot be accessed from Turkey at the moment. It can be accessed in any other country. Neither the domain name registrar, nor Turkish ISPs could help me solve the problem.
* * *
I was at the Turkish-Arab Media Forum in Istanbul a couple of days ago. I listened to my Egyptian, Tunisian and Libyan colleagues who excitedly lauded the democratic promises of the New Media and praised the Turkish model.
I liked most of them. I deeply appreciated some. But still, with both conclusions, several of them reminded me of Claude Levi-Strauss' words: "I have never known so much naive conviction allied to greater intellectual poverty."
No: Whatever the marketing campaigns tell you, the social media didn't have a crucial role in the Arab Spring. It seems that it only played a secondary role in Egypt.
And again, no: The current government in Turkey was actually not an ideal democratic model.
Maybe my Arab colleagues, whom I exchanged business cards with, are now reading these words.
And if they unsuccessfully tried to reach my blog through emrekizilkaya.com, they probably understood both of these realities.
All in all, in its current form, it seems that the Turkish government has got the potential to be even harsher against the media than those overthrown regimes.
Look: Even without facing a popular uprising, there are scores of Turkish journalists behind prison bars and Youtube is still banned. Imagine what would happen to the social media if this government faces dissent by masses, like in the Arab Spring countries...
And my personal website?
I promise, if our government gives emrekizilkaya.com back, I will be a good boy and forward it to the personal website of our tech-savvy Transportation Minister instead of my own...
EDIT: After the post, a couple of Twitter friends in Turkey told me that they can reach emrekizilkaya.com without any problem. I still can't reach it, like several of my friends and our technical department at my newspaper. Now I'm not sure about the reason. I'm waiting for a response from the domain registrar and the Turkish ISP. I don't think that this is normal, knowing the fact that Youtube could be reached in different parts of Turkey during the first days of the execution of the ban.
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