Turkish Deputy PM: Court favoured Twitter over people's rights

Turkey's Constitutional Court preferred to protect Twitter over individual rights, thecountry's Deputy PM Bulent Arinc said on Monday.Speaking after a Council of Ministers meeting, the Turkish cabinet's first gathering following nationwide local elections on Sunday, Arinc said that the cabinetelaborated mainly on the elections, the graft operations and its impacts on thegovernment and recent events in domestic politics such as the ban on Twitter andthe decision of Constitutional Court concerning the restrictions.“The Constitutional Court, by taking a decision requiring a lifting of the ban onTwitter, in fact nullified the resolutions of the Turkish judiciary,” said Arinc. The deputy PM added that the Constitutional Court allowed Twitter to avoid livingup to the resolutions of Turkish courts while, as a private company, Twitter obeyedjudicial decisions of other countries.Arinc was asked whether the cabinet talked about any legal actions to be takenagainst the Gulen movement led by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen.The deputy PM said that all judicial and administrative inquiries are ongoingconcerning the “parallel state”.“All necessary steps will be taken against all those who abused his bureaucraticposition in this respect,” added Arinc.Arinc was also asked about an interview by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis J.Ricciardone claiming that the Turkish government had unofficially asked the UnitedStates for the extradition of Fethullah Gulen; Arinc said the Turkish government hadnot made a request of this kind to the U.S. government.