Turkey's Erdogan reconciles with Twitter, sends first tweet
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had previously compared social media to a murderer’s knife, has sent his first ever Twitter message.
The Turkish leader on Monday sent his first personal tweet from the account @RT_Erdogan, denouncing smoking, the presidential administration announced.
"Get a grip of yourself against this poison," Erdogan wrote, using the hashtag #SigarayaTeslimOlma (Don't give in to cigarettes) and signing off with his initials RTE.
Mucahit Kucukyilmaz, the head of public communications at the presidential office, said the president “wanted to make a start on a meaningful day like this,” referring to Turkey's national anti-tobacco day.
The verified official account had in the past been used by Erdogan’s supporters, who shared phrases from his public speeches, but it has been now taken over by the presidential administration for the president's tweets.
Kucukyilmaz, however, did not say what had prompted Erdogan to change his mind about using social media.
Erdogan had previously voiced his displeasure with Twitter on several occasions.
During the June 2013 anti-government protests, the then-prime minister described Twitter as a “menace.”
"There is now a menace which is called Twitter," Erdogan said, adding: "The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society."
In February 2014, he said, “I have nothing to do with Twitter. I don't have that much free time anyway. I'm working day and night."
The former tech-skeptic prime minister also compared social media to a "knife in the hand of a murderer" in August 2014.
Turkey had blocked Twitter in March 2014 after Erdogan vowed to “wipe out” the social media platform after it was used to spread corruption allegations against Erdogan and his inner circle.
The Ankara government, however, lifted the ban in April following a rule by the country’s constitutional court that categorized the prohibition as unconstitutional as it violated freedom of expression.
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