Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suffered an unexpected health issue late Tuesday evening during a live interview on television, which briefly stopped broadcasting.
(Bloomberg) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suffered an unexpected health issue late Tuesday evening during a live interview on television, which briefly stopped broadcasting.
Erdogan, 69, said he’d developed an upset stomach during an aggressive campaign to extend his 20-year rule at elections on May 14.
“Naturally, we are facing such issues from time-to-time amid such a busy schedule,” Erdogan said as he returned to the broadcast on Kanal 7 after several minutes. He answered one more question before the interview ended.
Erdogan is scheduled to make campaign appearances in three separate provinces in central Turkey on Wednesday and his schedule was confirmed after the incident.
“Thank God, our president’s health is good,” his spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter.
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Erdogan is facing his toughest election race since taking office in 2003, with a broad alliance of opposition parties joining forces to unseat him as Turks struggle with the worst cost-of-living crisis in two decades.
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The cameras didn’t show Erdogan in the moments before the broadcast was interrupted, focusing instead on an interviewer asking a question. But microphones captured the concerned words of someone in the room saying, “oh no, oh no.”
The program had started 1.5 hours behind schedule without explanation. Erdogan said he’d considered canceling the interview due to his stomach issues.
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During his time in power, Erdogan brought political Islam into Turkey’s once-adamantly secular mainstream. After initially building a reputation as an economic hero, he began to accrue unchecked powers that critics say have undermined the country’s democratic foundations.
Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism and foreign policy zigzags, including closer military ties with Russia, have created rifts with the West. Yet at the same time, Turkey, a NATO member and European Union aspirant, continues to wield enormous influence because of its position as a bridge between Europe and Asia.
The opposition’s joint contender for president, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, wished Erdogan a quick recovery in a post on Twitter.
(Adds context on Erdogan’s leadership in paragraphs 8-9)
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