On March 31st two members of DHKP-C, a Marxist revolutionary group, strolled into Istanbul's main courthouse disguised as lawyers and armed with guns and hand grenades, and took a prosecutor hostage. Hours later the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, boasted that security forces had conducted a "successful" operation, killing both gunmen. No matter that the prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, had been killed too. Three days later 166 websites, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, were blocked for publishing images of Mr Kiraz held at gunpoint by his killers. Only when they complied with a court order to remove the pictures did they come back online. Such crackdowns have become routine under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Islamist president, who calls social media "the worst menace to society". He sometimes claims social media are being manipulated by an unnamed global "mastermind" trying to overthrow him and his Justice and Development (AK) party. A foreign diplomat in Ankara, the capital, says Mr Erdogan is creating imaginary enemies to stoke artificial crises and justify repression.
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机译：3月31日，马克思主义革命团体DHKP-C的两名成员伪装成律师，手持枪支和手榴弹，走进伊斯坦布尔的主要法院，并扣押了检察官人质。数小时后，总理艾哈迈德·达武古格鲁（Ahmet Davutoglu）吹嘘说，安全部队进行了一次“成功”行动，杀死了两名枪手。不管检察官穆罕默德·塞利姆·基拉兹（Mehmet Selim Kiraz）是否也被杀害。三天后，包括Twitter，Facebook和YouTube在内的166个网站因发布基拉兹杀手的枪口而被封锁。只有当他们遵守法院命令删除这些图片时，他们才重新在线。在伊斯兰总统雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安（Recep Tayyip Erdogan）的领导下，此类镇压已成为例行公事，他称社交媒体是“对社会最不利的威胁”。他有时声称社交媒体正被一个不知名的全球“策划者”操纵，试图推翻他及其正义与发展（AK）政党。首都安卡拉的一名外国外交官说，埃尔多安先生正在制造假想敌，以煽动人为危机并为压制提供辩护。
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