Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has cancelled several campaign events over the past two days after falling ill on live television, fuelling concerns about the Turkish president’s health less than three weeks before a tightly contested national election.
Turkey’s government was forced to respond to rumours on social media that the president had suffered a heart attack, saying they represented “baseless claims”. His Justice and Development party said the speculation amounted to “immoral false news”.
Erdoğan, 69, backed out of a handful of campaign events and planned TV appearances that had been scheduled for Thursday and Friday, although he is expected to appear on Thursday at a widely publicised opening of a nuclear plant in southern Turkey via video link rather than in person.