Turkey’s English Daily Newspaper, the Hurriyet, reported earlier this week that two of the nation’s largest gay and lesbian internet communities, hadigayri.com and gabile.com, have been shut down.

The two internet communities released a joint statement:

“Both sites have a wide variety of content, with sections such as gay news, commentary, film, literature, radio, health and forums. The number of members of both sites from Turkey is around 225,000. The directorate is forcing members of these sites to appeal this decision.”

According to its administrators and members, the sites do not contain any pornographic or criminal content.