Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- For the first time since 2007, internet users in Turkey have access to YouTube.
The Turkish government blocked the popular video-sharing website nearly two and a half years ago. That decision stemmed from complaints about videos on the site that ridiculed Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the much-revered founder of the Turkish republic. According to Turkish law, it is illegal to insult Ataturk.
"The block was put in place by a local prosecutor who demanded that we remove a number of videos from YouTube.com, our global service, because they were illegal under Turkish law -- even though we had made them inaccessible to users in Turkey," explained Scott Rubin, a spokesman for YouTube's parent company, Google, in an e-mail to CNN.
"We refused because we do not believe that Turkish law can or should be applied outside Turkey".
The YouTube ban has been criticized by free-speech groups and by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Turkey's president has even weighed in, albeit digitally.
"I won't approve Turkey to be in the category of countries that ban YouTube, prevent access to Google. Legal ways should be found," Turkish president Abdullah Gul announced on his Twitter account on June 4.
"Turkey is a country that integrated with the world. Such bans would block integration with the rest of the world," Gul wrote in a later Tweet.
The YouTube ban was imposed because of complaints over 10 videos that allegedly insulted Ataturk, according to Turkish officials. Government agencies were finally able to clear the deadlock last weekend when a company in Germany intervened by claiming copyrights to the controversial videos and removing them from the website.
CNN
