Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first public appearance on Saturday after falling ill earlier in the week, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
The leader showed up at aerospace and technology festival Teknofest in Istanbul. His wife, Emine Erdogan, also attended the event, along with the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, with his wife, Mehriban, and Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Al-Dbeibeh.
Speaking to media, the president said that he was feeling much better after coming down with a stomach infection that prompted him to cancel several election campaign events earlier this week.
“Thank God, much better,” Erdogan said when asked by CNN Turk correspondent Fulya Ozturk about his well-being as he was seated in Turkey’s domestically produced electric car TOGG with Aliyev in the driver’s seat.
On Tuesday, Erdogan abruptly interrupted a live television interview as he fell ill. Following a long break, the Turkish president returned on air and said that he had caught stomach flu. The next day, he canceled several election campaign events on doctors’ advice. Some media reported that Erdogan had suffered a heart attack, but the president’s office dismissed the reports.
On Thursday, the Turkish head of state took part in the nuclear fuel delivery ceremony at Turkiye’s Akkuyu nuclear power plant via a videoconference. On Friday, Erdogan made a video appearance at the opening ceremony for the bridge over River Seyhan in Adana.
