Insulting the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is a crime in Turkey punishable by prison.

Turk Telekom, the country's largest telecommunications provider, immediately began enforcing the ban Wednesday. Those who tried to access the YouTube site from Turkey encountered the message: "Access to this site has been blocked by a court decision!..."

"We are not in the position of saying that what YouTube did was an insult, that it was right or wrong," the head of Turk Telekom, Paul Doany, told the state-run Anatolia news agency. "A court decision was proposed to us, and we are doing what that court decision says."

A message in both Turkish and English at the bottom of the page said, "Access to http://www.youtube.com site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/384 dated 06.03.2007 of Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court."

The court — acting on a petition from Turk Telekom — ruled later Wednesday that it would revoke the ban as soon as it ascertained that the offending videos had been removed from YouTube. YouTube is owned by internet search engine giant Google.

In recent days, Turkish media publicized what some called a "virtual war" between Greeks and Turks on YouTube, with both sides posting videos to belittle and berate the other.

The video prompting the ban allegedly said Ataturk and the Turkish people were homosexuals, news reports said. The CNN-Turk Web site featured a link allowing Turks to complain directly to YouTube about the "insult."

On its front page on Wednesday, the newspaper Hurriyet said thousands of people had emailed YouTube and that the Ataturk videos had been removed from the site. "YouTube got the message," the headline said.