Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in an intense campaign for a re-election that no one takes for granted, canceled his schedule on Thursday, after rallies scheduled for Wednesday were postponed.
Speculation that Erdogan had suffered a heart attack during a live TV interview, just 15 days away from what would be the toughest election of his career, did not take long to flood social networks. However, the president’s advisers took to Twitter to denounce “disinformation without any factual basis”.
Erdogan had planned to visit some cities in central Anatolia on Wednesday. Thursday was scheduled to open the country’s first nuclear power plant, in Akkuyu, on the Mediterranean coast. The four reactors are owned by the Russian company Rosatom, and Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, will be present via video link, as will Erdogan himself, who remains at rest, following medical orders.
This is not the first time the 69-year-old Turkish president has had to cancel events for health reasons, nor is it the first time he has felt bad during an interview. He also underwent surgery twice, in 2010 and 2011, for problems also related to the digestive system. The broadcast of the interview, which took place on Tuesday, was interrupted when the frightened expression of a journalist interviewing the president suggested that something serious was going on with Erdoğan. But shortly thereafter, he himself came to explain that he was suffering “severe food poisoning,” and that these are “things that happen when you have such a busy work schedule.
This year the Turkish Republic celebrates its centenary, and these presidential (and parliamentary, at the same time) elections are being hailed as the most important in the country’s democratic history. The fragility of Erdogan, who has led Turkish politics for 21 years, could be a deciding factor.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Erdogan’s main opponent in 2023
Umit Bektas/Reuters
The vote comes about three months after a powerful earthquake devastated part of the southeastern part of the country, claiming more than 50,000 lives. The economic and financial crisis continues, as the Turkish lira incurred losses of about 30% against the dollar in 2022, and inflation affected a large part of families who lived relatively comfortably a year ago.
Erdogan will face CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the elections. The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party has already announced that it will not field its own candidate, who, according to analysts, will tend to push more votes from Erdogan to Kilicdaroglu.
The Kurdish people consider the current president to be the main executor of their most basic rights, and the CHP can win many votes in these angry wards because of the repressive laws that Erdogan has applied over the years. Kilicdaroglu, who represents the six-party opposition bloc, the National Alliance, on the other hand, is seen very badly by Syrian refugees: he has already advocated talks with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in order to bring back more than three million Syrian citizens living in Turkey. .
set of 11 probes, Reviewed by EuroNewsgiving Erdogan and his alliance about it 32% of voting intentions. The National Alliance was Kilicdaroglu followed soon after, touching down 28%.
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