...While bloggers were uncertain that the protest would have any effect on the YouTube ban, it was widely reported on Tuesday that the site had been unblocked in Turkey. Turkey´s Telecommunications Press Center stated that "Because the content which caused YouTube to be blocked by Ankara´s 11th High Criminal Court without any justification was taken off from YouTube, the court decided to permit access to the Web site. YouTube is now online."

As bloggers undoubtedly prepared to rejoice, however, the Telecommunications Press Center rescinded their announcement, stating on their web site that "Several media organs reported that YouTube was accessible from Turkey. These news stories are incorrect and serve to confuse the public. The YouTube Web site was blocked by a court decision and the ban can only be rescinded by another court decision."

Fréderike Geerdink, a Dutch journalist based in Turkey, expressed disappointment in her blog, remarking "Now I see that newspapers have been copying each other’s news without calling anybody in Turkey to just ask if they could access the site again. They would have said: No, youtube is still off-line. And then today’s press anouncement would not have been necessary either: it was officially stated that youtube was still banned."

And yet, news reports reporting YouTube to be unbanned keep coming in; ONI will continue reporting on this story as we learn more about it....

http://opennet.net/blog/2008/08/turkey-and-youtube-a-contentious-relationship

so my question is... has anybody recently been able to access youtube from Turkey this month or not?

and if the site is still really banned, can some some people still access the site? i know of a friend who told me that they can still go to the site using some sort of proxy or something...

oh and... can youtube be accessed in Turkish Hotels etc? is there some sort of exemption?