ISTANBUL , Turkey ( CNN ) -- Twitter has been the scene of a bizarre Turkish hashtag war between the mayor of Ankara and , well , a lot of other social networkers . The drama began Sunday when Ibrahim Melih Gokcek , the man who has been mayor of Turkey 's capital for more than a decade , accused a reporter from the BBC 's Turkish service of being a foreign agent . `` Who is @ selingirit ? BBC 's reporter in Turkey , '' Gokcek wrote in a series of English-language tweets . `` Led by England , they are trying to collapse our economy via agents hired , both nationally and internationally . They are dreaming for Turkey to be the 'Sick man of Europe ' once again . Here is a concrete proof . '' The BBC issued a statement Monday expressing concern about what it described as threats issued by Turkish officials against a BBC correspondent . Gokcek is an elected official from the Justice and Development Party , or AKP , which is led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan . Since an unprecedented explosion of street protests against Erdogan erupted more than three weeks ago , the prime minister and his deputies have accused demonstrators of being terrorists and vandals organized by an alleged shadowy foreign conspiracy Erdogan has labeled `` the interest lobby . '' Gokcek appeared determined to prove this Sunday via Twitter . Shortly after accusing Girit of being a spy , he announced the creation of the Turkish hashtag # INGILTEREADINAAJANLIKYAPMASELINGIRIT , which translates roughly to `` Do n't be a spy in the name of England Selin Girit . '' Then , the mayor of Ankara launched a campaign to make the hashtag one of Twitter 's worldwide trends . For the next several hours , he cheered on his followers as the accusation gained online traction with messages like `` Keep going Turkiye . Our Hash Tag is ranked 2th . Must place to number 1 . This will be our answer to BBC . '' Within hours , the mayor 's Twitter campaign appeared to have backfired . Online opponents began mobilizing their own hashtag in response to the mayor of Ankara . They began retweeting the hashtag # provokatormelihgokÃ§ek ( Melih Gokcek is a provocateur ) . By Sunday night in Turkey , # provokatormelihgokcek had replaced the mayor 's hashtag attacking Girit on Twitter 's list of world-wide trends . Gokcek responded by threatening anyone in the world who retweeted the provocateur hashtag with legal action . `` My lawyer is going to sue everyone one by one who tweets # ProvokatorMelihGokcek No one can get away with anything because Turkey is a country of law , '' the mayor of Ankara announced on Twitter Sunday night . As of 10am in Istanbul Monday , the # provokatormelihgokcek hashtag was ranked as the second most popular worldwide trend on Twitter . The BBC issued a statement expressing concern about what it called `` the continued campaign of the Turkish authorities to discredit the BBC and intimidate its journalists . '' `` A large number of threatening messages have been sent to one of our reporters , who was named and attacked on social media by the Mayor of Ankara , '' wrote Peter Horrocks , Global News Director of the BBC . Horrocks maintained that BBC reporters were committed to providing `` impartial and independent journalism . '' He called on the Turkish government to use `` proper channels '' to make comments and complaints to the organization . For the last several years , press freedoms organizations have published a number of reports expressing alarm about the Turkish government 's record of jailing journalists . `` The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has waged one of the world 's biggest crackdowns on press freedom in recent history , '' wrote the Committee to Protect Journalists in a 2012 report . Reporters Without Borders has labeled Turkey among the world 's worst jailers of journalists , since scores of media workers are currently in prison , many of them awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges .
Ankara 's mayor has used his Twitter account to accuse a BBC correspondent of spying . Mayor Ibrahim Melih Gokcek created a hashtag to spread the claims against the journalist . However , online opponents mobilized their own hashtag in response to Melih Gokcek . Their hashtag - accusing Melih Gocek of being a provocateur - became more widely spread .