Thousands say 'that's enough' to Turkey's Erdogan on Twitter

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to supporters during an event in Ankara, Turkey on May 8, 2018. Presidency Press Service via AP

Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan said he would step down if the people decided it was “enough”, sparking a worldwide Twitter trend of the word in Turkish.

“If one day our nation says ‘enough’, then we will move to the side,” he told his party in Ankara. He added this his foes “have just one care — to destroy Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

Mr Erdogan will on June 24 contest a president election, seeking a new mandate to extend his 15 years in power, which began when he became prime minister in 2003 and continued with his move to the presidency in 2014.

Hi ruling party is confident of victory in the polls, but Turkey remains highly polarised between supporters of Mr Erdogan and those who oppose him with equal passion.

"God willing, I believe we will, together with our nation, on June 24 once again give a well-deserved lesson to this team of destruction,” said Mr Erdogan on Tuesday.

Opponents seized on the word he had used in Turkish for “enough” — “tamam” — and turned it into the top Twitter trend around the world with more than 450,000 tweets by the afternoon.

Meanwhile, supporters of Mr Erdogan also took Twitter on Tuesday and used the Turkish word "devam" — which translates into "continuation" — to show their support for the Turkish president.

Denounced by his opponents as an authoritarian leader and throwback to the Ottoman sultans, Mr Erdogan boasts of having brought Turkey to a new level of economic prosperity and foreign policy influence under his rule.

While there is strong hostility to him on the Aegean coast, some Kurdish areas and parts of Istanbul and Ankara, he retains widespread and massively enthusiastic support in the Anatolian core of the country.