Anonymous launches attacks against Turkish government for Gezi Park protests

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Anonymous has called for an end to 'tyranny' in Turkey.

The global hacking collective Anynomous has promised to launch attacks against the Turkish government in response days of police violence against protesters at Taksim Gezi Park and around the country.

Erdoğan should learn from the fate of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and resign before inflaming the situation further, it said in a YouTube video that displayed shots of the recent violence between protesters and police.

The group managed to take down access to the Official Gazette and other sites with a hacking attempt late on June 2. The website of private channel NTV, which has come in for stiff criticism for failing to adequately cover the events, was also subjected to an apparent Anonymous attack early June 3.

Accusing the government of censoring social media to prevent citizens from learning the truth, Anonymous vowed to bring the Turkish government "to its knees" by attacking all state websites in “#opTurkey.”

Early on June 3, the group announced on Twitter that they had taken down websites of President Abdullah Gül, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Istanbul Governor's Office and the Istanbul Police Department.

"We have watched for days with horror as our brothers and sisters in Turkey who are peacefully rising up against their tyrannical government [have been] brutalized, beaten, run over by riot vehicles, shot with water cannons and gassed in the streets," the group said in a message posted on YouTube.

Anynomous said that while Turkey's government claims to act like a democracy, it was more akin to the "petty dictators in China or Iran."