There was not a dull moment in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s election speech when he addressed this party’s parliamentary group on May 8.
“They [the opposition] have just one goal — to destroy Recep Tayyip Erdogan. If, one day, our nation says enough, then we will move to the side,” Erdogan said. The Turkish word Erdogan uttered for enough was “tamam,” which has multiple meanings in Turkish. It also means OK, done, finished or over. Yet this little word has ignited a fire among Turkey’s opposition ranks and offered a rare opportunity to unite Turkey’s highly fractured and polarized opposition.
It started on social media. Within the first five hours of Erdogan’s live televised speech, almost 500,000 tweets poured in with the word “T A M A M” spelled with one space between each letter, or as the hashtag #Tamam. People from all walks of life came out telling Erdogan “Tamam.” It was as if everyone was waiting for an opportunity to express their resentments, fears and dreams. In less than 24 hours, Twitter was overwhelmed with almost 2 million tweets standing strong for the Tamam campaign.
When you are censored and at times punished for the simplest criticism, you have to find creative ways to display your discontent. In Turkey, people have lost their jobs and their freedom because of social media posts. This time the opposition has turned the table on Erdogan by using his own words to show their readiness for a government without him.
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