Turkey shut down Russian state news agency website Sputnik without prior notification under “administrative measures” imposed by Ankara.

Turkey shut down Russian state news agency website Sputnik without prior notification under “administrative measures” imposed by Ankara.

“After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the law Nr. 5651, administration measure has been taken for this website (sputniknews.com) according to decision Nr. 490.05.01.2016.-56092 dated 14/04/2016 of the Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication,” says an error message that appears on the sputniknews.com homepage for any user trying to access the site from Turkey.

Sputnik’s Turkish bureau chief Tural Kerimov said that the Turkish authorities had failed to notify the agency of any alleged violations in advance of the abrupt blocking.

“We received no notifications, warnings or other messages from the competent authorities. No communications have been received since the blocking,” he said. The problems with sputniknews.com were first reported at about 7:50pm local time.

The Department of Telecommunications and Communication responded to the website request for clarification by saying that “because it is already late and there are no responsible persons [available], we cannot provide comment on this issue.” Further comments are expected to come at a later date.

The unexplained move comes on the heels of an EU resolution on Thursday, which denounced what they called a “serious backsliding on fundamental freedoms,” including the growth of clashes in the southeast of Turkey and government’s “violent and illegal take-over of several newspapers including Zaman.”