ISTANBUL — A spokesman for Turkey's president says that a prosecutor has ordered Internet providers to block social networking sites, including Twitter and YouTube. The request stems from postings of photos that show militant Marxists pointing a gun at a prosecutor who died last week in a shootout between police and the Marxists who were holding him hostage. Government officials have blasted Turkish media for posting the images.
It was not immediately clear how the order was being carried out, but the government-run Anadolu Agency quoted the Union of Internet Providers as confirming that access to Twitter and YouTube has been blocked.
Last year, Turkey closed down access to YouTube and Twitter after leaked recordings suggested corruption by people close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Meanwhile, a British citizen was among those arrested in an operation against a far-left militant group in Turkey after its members last week took hostage the prosecutor who died when armed police tried to free him, local media said on Monday.
Stephan Shak Kacynski, a British national of Polish origin, was detained on Saturday as part of an operation against the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), the pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper said.
A source from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that a UK national with that name had been held by the police and that he had been offered consular assistance, but gave no further details. The prosecutor died from his wounds after security forces stormed the office last Tuesday, ending a six-hour standoff. His two captors were also killed. — Agencies
The United States, European Union and Turkey list the DHKP-C as a terrorist organization. It was behind a suicide bombing at the U.S. Embassy in 2013. In 2001, two policemen and an Australian tourist died in a DHKP-C attack in central Istanbul. — Agencies
