Turkish President Erdogan overcomes Twitter phobia and tweets first message.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has personally sent his first tweet, giving an anti-smoking message.

The now-verified account, @RT_Erdogan, was originally opened in August 2009, and amassed over 5.7 million followers, mostly by sharing phrases from Erdogan’s public speeches with no additional comments.

Although he never clarified who was managing this account, Erdogan has voiced his displeasure with Twitter on several occasions in the past.

During the Gezi Park protests of June 2013, he described the micro blogging website as a “menace,” while in March 2014, Turkey blocked Twitter, hours after then-Prime Minister Erdogan vowed to “wipe out” the social media platform.

However, this has not kept the President from finally taking control of his account.

“Today is Feb. 9, World Quit Smoking Day. Be strong-willed and do not surrender to a cigarette,” Erdogan tweeted, after sharing a number of statistics about smoking-related deaths.

Today is World Quit Smoking Day. Keep your resolve and #DontGiveIntoSmoking
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RT_Erdogan) February 9, 2015

Since Monday, Erdogan has issued a steady stream of Tweets from his visit to Latin America.

Credit: Famagusta Gazette