Turkey's president said Sunday the government would soon lift its ban on Twitter, which has sparked criticism at home and abroad.
"It is not legally possible to shut down the Internet and such platforms (as Twitter)," Abdullah Gul told reporters in Ankara before leaving for an official visit to the Netherlands, AFP reports.
"This is of course an unpleasant situation for such a developed country as Turkey, which has weight in the region and which is negotiating with the European Union. Therefore, it will be overcome soon," he said.
The president also confirmed that the US-based social media giant had hired a lawyer in Turkey for negotiations with the authorities.
"Twitter did not have any representative in Turkey. There should be good communication channels with such... giants. They now have a lawyer here acting for them," he said.
Gul, a frequent social media user, took to Twitter on Friday to denounce the government's ban hours after the network went dark, becoming the highest-level leader in the country to circumvent the block, along with some ministers.
The Twitter ban was instituted late Thursday after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to "wipe out" the social network.
