Turkish journalist jailed for 10 months for a 'typo' on Twitter

Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced plans to shut down private schools including those run by the Gulen movement - now one of the government's enemies. Onder Aytac, who has 180,000 followers on the social media site, reacted to the news by tweeting the words: 'KAPAT BE USTAAAAAAMMMMMMK'The word 'ustam' means 'my chief' or 'my master' and is a common nickname for Erdogan among his supporters. However, it was the letter 'k' at the end of the word which landed Aytac in hot water.Zeynep Tufekci, social media expert and assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, told the International Business Times that the 'k' transforms the last part of the word to an offensive abbreviation in Turkish. The columnist claims it was just a typo and that he never meant to add the 'k' to the end of the tweet.Instead he says he meant to say: 'Close them down my chief'.But Turkey’s defamation laws make it a crime to insult public officials during the course of their job.Aytac, an former police official, is a well-known writer for the opposition newspaper Taraf, which is part of Erdogan's former-ally Gulen movement. There has been a deepening feud between Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen - the influential cleric who is living in exile in Pennsylvania, U.S. The Gulen movement runs a global empire of private schools. However, there has been ill-feeling between the two since the Turkish government moved to close down a network of private schools run by Mr Gulen. Until then, the movement played a part in driving the electoral success of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party, which has been in power for three terms.The movement's influence extends beyond Turkey, funding hundreds of Islamic schools, think tanks and media outlets, from Kenya to Kazakhstan. It has attracted millions of followers and billions of dollars.Followers are said to donate between 5 per cent and 20 per cent of their income to groups affiliated with the movement.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az