Turkey's communications director accuses YouTube of hypocrisy

By Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s presidential communications director on Thursday accused YouTube of hypocrisy for banning his speech he made at an exhibition in the memory of Turkish diplomats martyred by Armenian terrorist organizations.

"I regret to say that the speech I made at the Martyr Diplomats Exhibition was censored by YouTube. This speech supposedly contained hate speech," Fahrettin Altun said on Twitter.

Accusing YouTube of practicing "double standards and hypocrisy," he said: "YouTube, which ignores hate speeches against Islam and Muslims and easily opens up space for the terrorist organizations’ smear campaign, considers what we said about the murderous terrorists who martyred our Turkish diplomats as a hate crime!"

"Like it or not, we will keep saying on all occasions that terrorism has no language, religion or race," he went on to say.

"We have seen once again that we need indigenous and national platforms in the field of media and communication, as we need in every field."

On April 24, Altun delivered a speech at The Martyr Diplomats Exhibition, which was held simultaneously at Istanbul's Sirkeci Station and in Los Angeles.

It was dedicated to Turkish diplomats who continued their duties despite the threats and attacks by Armenian terrorist groups between 1973 and 1984, and lost their lives for this purpose.