Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has vowed to step down if his people decide they have had “enough” prompting over 1 million Turks to use the word tamam, (enough in Turkish) and making it the top worldwide Twitter trend for the day.
Erdogan will contest a Presidential election, scheduled for June 24, seeking to extend his 15 years in power which began when he became the Prime Minister in 2003 and continued with his move to the presidency in 2014.
His ruling party is confident of victory in the polls but the country remains torn.
Erdogan, speaking to his Justice and Development party in Ankara on Tuesday, said his enemies “have just one care – to destroy Recep Tayyip Erdogan. If, one day, our nation says ‘enough’, then we will move to the side,” he said, referring to himself in the first person plural.
Opponents rapidly took to social media and it became the top Twitter trend around the world, with more than 1 million tweets.
Some simply tweeted the word in bold letters with spaces – T A M A M – while others added slogans and gifs.
Erdogan, who has been referred to as a dictator and authoritarian leader, said he has brought Turkey to a new level of economic prosperity and foreign policy influence.
Predicting victory in the election, he added: “God willing, I believe we will, together with our nation, on 24 June once again give a well deserved lesson to this team of destruction.”
