The Turkish State, in effect the court in Istanbul, has banned access to the video sharing website YouTube after a series of insults between Greek and Turkish users of the site.

The Greek users had in video clip posted on the site, accused Turkeys founding father, Ataturk, of homosexuality.

In Turkey it’s illegal to criticize either ‘Turkishness’ or the late Ataturk.

Even though YouTube were quick to remove the clip, the judge still ordered the site to be banned. The state-owned Internet Service Provider, Turk Telecom, which is the country’s biggest, implemented the ban immediately without questions asked – the smaller, privately owned, have still not taken up a position on the ban.

As Turkey tries to gain entry in to the European Union, this will be seen as a serious threat to the freedom of expression, and neo-conservatives all over Europe will definitely use this latest incident to their advantage and ask for any future talks to be canceled.

More on the story here and here.