Türkiye Suddenly Reinstates Access to Instagram

A woman holds a phone showing a message that reads 'Please wait while Turkish is being set up' after trying to access Instagram, in Istanbul, 03 August 2024. EPA/ERDEM SAHIN
A woman holds a phone showing a message that reads 'Please wait while Turkish is being set up' after trying to access Instagram, in Istanbul, 03 August 2024. EPA/ERDEM SAHIN
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Türkiye Suddenly Reinstates Access to Instagram

A woman holds a phone showing a message that reads 'Please wait while Turkish is being set up' after trying to access Instagram, in Istanbul, 03 August 2024. EPA/ERDEM SAHIN
A woman holds a phone showing a message that reads 'Please wait while Turkish is being set up' after trying to access Instagram, in Istanbul, 03 August 2024. EPA/ERDEM SAHIN

Türkiye reinstated access to Instagram on Saturday night, after more than a week of being blocked nationwide.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority barred access to Instagram on Aug. 2 without providing a specific reason.

A top Turkish official had accused Instagram of blocking condolence posts over the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Türkiye has denounced Israel's attacks on Gaza, called for an immediate ceasefire and criticized what it calls unconditional support for Israel by the West.

Government officials later said the ban was imposed because the social media platform failed to abide by Turkish laws.

“In our talks with Instagram officials, we were assured our requests would be met, especially those regarding criminal activity, and given a promise that we would work together on a means of censoring users,” Abdulkadir Uraloglu, Türkiye's transportation and infrastructure minister wrote on the social media platform X Saturday.

Uraloglu elaborated in a video also posted on X, saying that the platform “was to establish compliance with Turkish law and that in instances where the law was violated, there would be quick and effective intervention.”

He added that all accounts owned by “terrorist” organizations would be banned and all content promoting such organizations would be removed, singling out the PKK, PYD and FETO.



Father, 4-year-old Son Die in Russian Air Attack on Kyiv Region

Rescuers work at a site where residential buildings were damaged during a Russian military strike in a location given as Brovary, Kyiv region, Ukraine in this screengrab from handout video released August 11, 2024. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers work at a site where residential buildings were damaged during a Russian military strike in a location given as Brovary, Kyiv region, Ukraine in this screengrab from handout video released August 11, 2024. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
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Father, 4-year-old Son Die in Russian Air Attack on Kyiv Region

Rescuers work at a site where residential buildings were damaged during a Russian military strike in a location given as Brovary, Kyiv region, Ukraine in this screengrab from handout video released August 11, 2024. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers work at a site where residential buildings were damaged during a Russian military strike in a location given as Brovary, Kyiv region, Ukraine in this screengrab from handout video released August 11, 2024. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS

A 4-year-old boy and his 35-year-old father died when debris from a downed Russian weapon fell on the house they were living in near the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.
A 13-year-old child was among the injured in the attack in the Brovary district, in the Kyiv region just northeast of the capital's metropolitan area, Ukraine's emergency services said on the Telegram messaging app.

Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry said on Sunday Russian air defense units destroyed 14 Ukraine-launched drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles over the Kursk region bordering Ukraine.

Sixteen drones were downed over the Voronezh region, several hundred kilometers south of Moscow, and three drones over the border Belgorod region, it said. One drone each was destroyed over the Bryansk and Orlov regions, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were fighting in the surprise offensive in Kursk, as the border region's authorities rushed to evacuate civilians from areas at risk.

Moscow's forces are in their sixth day of intense battles against Kyiv's largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war, which left southwestern parts of Russia vulnerable before reinforcement started arriving.

In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions on Saturday, while Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow, sent more troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its air space.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said he had discussed the operation with top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, vowing to restore justice after Russia launched a full-scale aggression on its smaller neighbour in February 2022.
"Today, I received several reports from commander-in-chief Syrskyi regarding the front lines and our actions to push the war onto the aggressor's territory," he said.
"Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor."
Russian President Vladimir Putin cast the Ukrainian attack - which military analysts say caught the Kremlin off-guard - as a major provocation.

Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, said on Wednesday the attacks had been halted, but Russia has thus far failed to push the Ukrainian forces back over the border.
Russian military bloggers say the situation had stabilized after Russia's reinforcements, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces.

Early on Sunday, Kursk officials said that 13 people were injured in the city after debris from a destroyed Ukraine-launched missile fell onto a nine-story residential building.
Alexei Smirnov, Kursk's acting governor, ordered local authorities to speed up the evacuation of civilians in areas at risk. On Saturday, Russia's TASS state news agency reported that more than 76,000 people had been evacuated.