YouTube removes video of Erdoğan's communication director due to 'hate speech'

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YouTube has removed the video of a speech by Presidency Communications Director Fahrettin Altun due to "hate speech" against Armenians.

On April 24, Altun delivered a speech during an event to commemorate Turkey's diplomats who were assassinated by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) in the 1970s and 1980s.

After YouTube banned the video, Altun accused the platform of "hypocrisy."

"I regret to say that the speech I made at the Martyr Diplomats Exhibition was censored by YouTube. This speech supposedly contained hate speech," Altun said on Twitter.

"YouTube, which ignores hate speeches against Islam and Muslims and easily opens up space for the terrorist organizations' smear campaign, considers what we said about the murderous terrorists who martyred our Turkish diplomats as a hate crime!

"Like it or not, we will keep saying on all occasions that terrorism has no language, religion or race.

"We have seen once again that we need indigenous and national platforms in the field of media and communication, as we need in every field."

On April 24 Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, the Communications Directorate organized the Martyr Diplomats Exhibition, which was held simultaneously at Istanbul's Sirkeci Train Station and in Los Angeles. (KÖ/VK)