TURKEY PERSPECTIVE

Turkey covers Russian internet blackouts with the diplomatic caution and ambivalence characterizing its position between NATO and Moscow. TRT and Daily Sabah avoid directly criticizing Russia, reporting outages factually without moral judgment. Ankara, which buys S-400s from Moscow while being a NATO member, cannot afford to denounce Putin's digital practices.

Cumhuriyet, the Kemalist opposition paper, is more direct: 'If Erdoğan admires Putin's methods for controlling the internet, he could be tempted to import them.' The paper recalls Turkey's own internet shutdowns during the 2016 coup attempt and regular blocking of Wikipedia, Twitter and YouTube. Turkey itself is no model of digital freedom.

Hürriyet analyzes the economic dimension: Russian losses recall Turkey's own losses during the 2016 shutdowns. Turkey's growing tech sector observes the flight of Russian digital talent as an opportunity: Istanbul has become a popular destination for exiled Russian developers.

The neo-Ottoman dimension is subtly present: Turkey positions itself as a digital bridge between Western (free) and Eastern (controlled) internet ecosystems, proposing a 'Turkish model' of regulation that would be neither American anarchy nor Russian totalitarianism.