YouTube Freely Available Again in Turkey

The YouTube ban in Turkey has been lifted, according to officials. This came after videos that the country found offensive were removed from the site. While Google has confirmed that it's starting to see some traffic coming from Turkey, it says it has no direct involvement with the removal of the videos and that's investigating the matter.

"[W]e didn't get here easily, we have been through a lot in the process," Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, who oversees matters regarding the internet, told the local NTV.

"I hope that they have also learned from this experience and the same thing will not happen again. YouTube will hopefully carry out its organization in Turkey within the limits of law in the future."

This a two-year ban on the popular video site in the country. The heart of the issue concerns Turkish laws which make any offensive comments against Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkey republic, or against "Turkishness" illegal.

Denigrating videos were uploaded to YouTube at some point, causing several temporary bans since 2007. In 2008 a permanent ban was instituted.

YouTube refused to remove the videos, since they were not against the site's terms of use or against US laws. Despite many in Turkey complaining about the ban, including Turkey's President Abdullah Gul who urged officials to find a solution, the court decision held.

It's unclear who has removed the videos in question and why. While Google has been in talks with Turkey, it says it had noting to do with the removal, despite the fact that officials seem to imply that YouTube has somehow complied with Turkish law.

"We want to be clear that a third party, not YouTube, have apparently removed some of the videos that have caused the blocking of YouTube in Turkey using our automated copyright complaint process," Google said in a statement.

"We are investigating whether this action is valid in accordance with our copyright policy," the company added.