Turkey’s embattled government has blocked access to YouTube, hours after the release of a leaked tape in which top national security figures appear to discuss preparing for a possible clash with Syria.
The move came as political tensions heightened ahead of this weekend’s local elections that prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan depicts as a virtual referendum on his rule.
Mr Erdogan last week banned Twitter in Turkey after the microblogging platform was used to distribute corruption allegations against his government – a decision the US has described as the 21st century equivalent of book-burning and which has been widely condemned internationally.