Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is battling an intestinal virus, appeared live on television Thursday, two days after interrupting a live interview. The head of state, who was forced to cancel his trips on Wednesday and Thursday, 17 days before risky presidential and legislative elections, spoke via video conference from the presidential palace in Ankara to mark the inauguration of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.
“Our country has risen to the top of the league of nuclear-armed nations,” Erdogan said with drawn features, though dispelling more alarming rumors about his health. One of the highlights of the Turkish president’s week was the inauguration of the Akuyu Power Plant (South), built by Russian giant Rosatom. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was originally scheduled to be there, had anticipated the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking before him via video conference.
On Wednesday evening, the Director of Communications for the Turkish Presidency, Fahrettin Altun, sought to calm rumors circulating on social networks after it was announced that two trips planned for Thursday had been cancelled. “We categorically reject baseless claims regarding President @RTErdogan’s health,” tweeted Fahrettin Altun, sharing screenshots of widely circulated tweets claiming the Turkish president had suffered a heart attack.
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“stomach flu”
The episode began on Tuesday evening: twenty days before the double vote on May 14, the head of state was to give a lengthy interview to two Turkish television channels and made three public appearances earlier in the day in three different cities. . The broadcast, which was inexplicably delayed for an hour and a half, was abruptly interrupted in the tenth minute amid a journalist’s question. “Oh wow,” said an unidentified voice from behind the camera before the show cut, and the interviewer rose from his chair.
The head of state, looking pale, reappeared on air a quarter of an hour later before cutting the interview short, explaining that he had “stomach flu”. In a tweet, the Turkish president, whose attitude has sometimes eased in recent years, announced the next morning that he was “resting at home today (Wednesday) on the advice of doctors”, canceling three planned trips to central Anatolia.
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“He’s fine”
“He is doing well. The effects of his gastroenteritis have subsided. He wants to resume his program soon,” Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday afternoon. However, the episode falls deeply on the head of state, while 3.4 million Turks abroad are on the electoral roll. Registrants began voting on Thursday.In power since 2003, first as prime minister and then as president, Mr. Erdogan has fared well in opinion polls as he fronted a united front facing an opposition party.
His main opponent, Kemal Kilicadaroglu, heads a coalition that unites six opposition parties and has the tacit support of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, considered the kingmaker of the presidential election. At home before the elections, the head of state wanted to arrange two or three daily gatherings after sharing the meal that broke the fast during Ramadan in different circles every evening.
The Turkish leader’s health, a medical report of which has not been made public, sparked speculation after a major bowel operation at the end of 2011, followed by another the following year. The Prime Minister later publicly denied that he was suffering from colon cancer, explaining that the operations were aimed at removing polyps.
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