Top 10 comments by Erdoğan that made the headlines in 2014

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made the headlines with several statements in 2014. When he was still Turkey’s prime minister before Aug. 10 presidential elections, many of his sensational comments targeted his political rivals – or the Internet as a whole. He managed to stay on the front pages after he won the elections, but his criticism concentrated more on social and historical issues come fall.

1) We’ll eradicate Twitter

Turkey blocked access to Twitter, hours after Erdoğan vowed to close down the social media platform. “We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic,” he said at a campaign rally in the northwestern city of Bursa on March 20. (Click here to read more about this story)

2) America was discovered by Muslims, not by Columbus

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the first Latin American Muslim leaders’ summit in Istanbul on Nov. 15, Erdoğan claimed that “Muslim sailors had arrived on the shores of America in 1178. In his diaries, Christopher Columbus referred to the presence of a mosque on top of a mountain in Cuba.” He also proposed to build a mosque “on that hill” if Cuban authorities permit him to do so. (Click here to read more about this story)

3) Gender equality ‘against nature’

“You cannot bring women and men into equal positions; that is against nature because their nature is different,” Erdoğan said Nov. 24, delivering a speech at an international gathering in Istanbul aimed at discussing women’s rights and freedoms. (Click here to read more about this story)

4) The robot lobby on social media is plotting against...