Twitter: Turkish president watched pirated DVD

The Turkish president has become the subject of discussion on social media website Twitter after sending a tweet on the site saying he had watched a film not yet legally available in Turkey, Hurriyet reports.

“I watched ‘The King’s Speech’ with my wife. It is really a very good film … I suppose the film will be subject to many discussions and be awarded many prizes,” President Abdullah Gül wrote Saturday on his Twitter account.

The message touched off a number of discussions about whether the president had watched a pirated copy of the film.

Suspicions were raised as the film’s DVD will only be available for sale on April 19 in the United States and will only begin playing in Turkish cinemas starting Feb. 18, daily Milliyet reported Sunday. Members of the social networking website discussed all of Saturday the possibility that Gül had watched a pirated copy of the film.

Following the discussions, a message from the Cinema and Copyright’s general director, Abdurrahman Çelik, was posted on his Twitter account.

“The president has not watched a pirate copy of the film ‘The King’s Speech,’ but rather a special copy provided by the cinema general directorate upon his request,” Çelik wrote on Twitter.

The film has been nominated for the best picture Oscar.