Internet domain name watchdog ICANN to launch a huge regional hub in Turkey

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) controls the system that matches website addresses with numerical addresses. Hürriyet photo

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will perform its operational activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from a hub based in Turkey, Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım announced on March. 15, during an event hosted by daily Hürriyet in İzmir.

Yıldırım said the Internet domain name watchdog had decided to split its headquarters into three regional administration centers. "There was serious competition [to host one of these centers], and ICANN took the decision to spread its activities through three nodes: Los Angeles, Istanbul and Singapore. Los Angeles will cover traffic in the Americas. Istanbul will cover Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Singapore will cover Asia," he said.

The minister said that such a development indicated Turkey’s strength as a "strategic junction." "[The officials] came to Turkey to consult our opinions. We are becoming a strategic junction in a very important issue," he said.

Created in California in 1988, ICANN oversees the system that matches website addresses with numerical addresses that computers can understand. ICANN was created as a non-profit organization in an effort to democratize the supervision of the internet identifiers. Before ICANN’s establishment, the domain name system of the Internet was controlled by the government of the United States.