Turkey´s Earthquake and Twitter Ban

 Watch starting from 1min10 seconds:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hSbzdWn_Kw

Turkey's President Erdogan has declared a three-month state of emergency across areas hit by Monday's deadly earthquakes. Two extremely powerful quakes hit Turkey just nine hours apart. The first quake was a magnitude 7.5; the second registered 7.8 on the Richter scale. They are among the biggest earthquakes ever to hit Turkey. They caused huge loss of life and damage in southeast Turkey and in neighbouring Syria. President Erdogan warned of the danger of a "large number of aftershocks". He said: "Our teams are working to reach the disaster areas.…We are rapidly continuing the search and rescue operations…despite the difficulty of the conditions and the terrible weather."

The international community has promised support for Turkey and Syria. The EU has sent more than 1,150 rescue workers. Emergency medical teams will provide "essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable people affected by the earthquakes". Mexico has sent a team of dogs and rescuers who are experts in locating survivors in the rubble. U.S. President Joe Biden said he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation caused by the earthquakes". He promised to give "any help that is needed". Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: "We mourn with the victims and fear for those buried." Syria will also receive a lot of help. It has already suffered for years from war.

Erdogan is considered quite controversial and has been heavily criticized for his authoritarian and repressive policies. His government is notorious for having an extensive history of social media restrictions during national emergencies and safety incidents. 

Turkish police have detained more than a dozen people since Monday's earthquake over social media posts that criticized how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has been dealing with the disaster.

Turkish social media have been filled with posts by people complaining about a lack of search and rescue efforts in their provinces.

The Twitter outage came as Erdogan toured two of the hardest-hit Turkish provinces.

Turkish officials released no immediate statements about the service disruption.
But they had issued repeated warnings about spreading misinformation in advance of a crucial May 14 election in which Erdogan will try to extend his two-decade rule.

A court in Turkey has said the country's Twitter ban prevents free speech. It said that blocking Twitter takes away people's right to express themselves freely. Mr Erdogan is a big critic of social networks. As well as blocking Twitter, he also ordered the temporary blocking of YouTube. He had said in a past election campaign speech: "We will wipe out Twitter. I don't care what the international community says."

The Twitter ban did not work as Mr Erdogan wanted it to. Turks found many ways to get on Twitter without using the normal channels. Internet companies say there was a surge in tweets after the ban but usage is down to half of what it was before. Many Turks are furious with the government for banning Twitter. They are determined to make sure they can access the micro-blogging site. The court agreed with the people. It said: "Everyone has the right to express and share his/her thoughts and opinions by speech, in writing, in pictures or through other media." Twitter was happy with the court's announcement. Its global public policy team tweeted: "We hope to have Twitter access restored in Turkey soon."

1. SITES: How good are these sites? In what way do they come in handy and in what way are they a waste of time and need improvement ?

	Score	Why?	Best things	Worst things
Twitter
Google
Facebook
YouTube
Wikipedia
Amazon Instagram Tic-Toc Tinder-Grinder

2. BAN: Students A strongly believe no site should ever be banned, as a matter of principle; Students B strongly believe many sites should be banned.  If so, which ones and why ?

3. INTERNET: Rank these with your partner. Put the things that need improving at the top and tell us why.

• speed   • price   • wi-fi access   • content

• translation   • password technology   • security   • ease of use

4.VOCABULARY:

 Paragraph 1

1.	declared	a.	To a very great degree;
2.	extremely	b.	Very, very big.
3.	apart	c.	Told many people something important.
4.	huge	d.	A sudden accident or a natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life.
5.	neighbouring	e.	Next to or very near another place.
6.	disaster	f.	Extremely bad or serious.
7.	terrible	g.	Of two or more people or things separated by time or space.

    Paragraph 2

8.	rescue	h.	Feel or show sadness for the death of someone.
9.	essential	i.	People who live with the possibility of being attacked or harmed.
10.	the injured	j.	A person who is very knowledgeable about or skillful in a particular area.
11.	the vulnerable	k.	Save someone or something from a dangerous or difficult situation.
12.	expert	l.	Totally necessary; very, very important.
13.	devastation	m.	Great destruction or damage.
14.	mourn	n.	People who have damage to their body or mind.

5.SYNONYM MATCH A: 

1. declared
2. deadly
3. hit
4. huge
5. terrible
6. promised
7. provide
8. rubble
9. devastation
10. help

1. ruins
2. enormous
3. aid
4. lethal
5. vowed
6. damage
7. announced
8. give
9. strike
10. really bad

6. SYNONYM MATCH B: 

1.	prevents	a.	uploaded
2.	freely	b.	fixed on
3.	posted	c.	usual
4.	embarrassing	d.	openly
5.	wipe out	e.	increase
6.	normal	f.	destroy
7.	surge	g.	stops
8.	determined	h.	put back
9.	opinions	i.	uncomfortable
10.	restored	j.	views

7.Major Question: What are the top 3 crises your country has ever experienced and how was it dealt with. 

8.Plural: Notice how crisis becomes crises.What are the plurals of the following words:

• 1.Man 
• 2.Woman .
• 3.Fox
• 4.Ox 
• 5.Goose 
• 6.Sheep
• 7.Deer
• 8.Dear
• 9.Child 
• 10.Tooth
• 11.Foot
• 12.Mouse 
• 13.News
• 14.Series
• 15.Species
• 16.thesis
• 17.axis
• 18.ellipsis 
• 19.basis
• 20.ex

8.FREE SPEECH DISCUSSION

STUDENT A's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the term 'free speech'?
c)	Why do some countries dislike Twitter?
d)	Is it OK for a country to block Twitter?
e)	What would you do if you had no access to social networking sites?
f)	Can people say anything they want on Twitter?
g)	What do you think of Turkey's prime minister blocking Twitter?
h)	What technology things are you a big critic of?
i)	Is it possible to "wipe out" Twitter?
j)	How important do you think free speech is?

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STUDENT B's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article? Why/not?
b)	How can people get on Twitter if the country has blocked it?
c)	What kind of sites is it OK for a country to block?
d)	What would life be like without the Internet?
e)	How important are sites like Twitter and Facebook?
f)	What do you think Turkey's government will do about Twitter?
g)	Do you think the ban has helped Turkey's leader?
h)	Are 140 characters enough to say what you want to say?
i)	Is it important for you to express your opinions online?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Turkey's leader?