The Foreign Policy report on Erdogan’s illness once again raised the question in Turkish political and news circles: Is Erdogan ill and is his team trying to hide the illness?
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency International Group, The publication of Foreign Policy news about the illness of the President of Turkey attracted the attention of many world media. Inside Turkey, the Turkish political and news circles once again faced this question: Is Erdogan sick and is his team trying to hide the disease or not?
Foreign policy and some other media and analysts believe that in the video files related to Erdogan’s speeches, in close-up, there are expressions and reactions in his face that indicate a chronic fatigue and illness.
The Foreign Policy article stated that the Presidential Institution and the Justice and Development Party had considered all aspects and even selected an alternative.
Why Khulusi Akar?
Rumors of Erdogan possibly contracting a deadly disease have claimed that Turkish Defense Minister General Khulusi Akar is the same person who has been suggested as a possible replacement for Erdogan. But why Khulusi Akar?
Firstly, because in Turkey, high-ranking military commanders, regardless of party affiliation or political affiliation, usually have a high reputation and national popularity, and Akar’s sincerity, compared to other options such as Foreign Minister Ibrahim Cullen, Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, and ruling party deputy Kurtolmus is much more popular, and in addition to the ruling party’s supporters, the opposition can also welcome him.
The main reason for Erdogan’s fatigue
One of the important points that has always been the Achilles heel of the AKP is that after 20 years, Erdogan is still the most active and hard-working person in the party, and basically, the continuous activity of the party leader has done what many from the top deputies and cadres, reach this conclusion: President (Erdogan) makes up for our shortcomings. But the fact is that this has taken a lot of energy from Erdogan.
He travels around the clock, traveling, interviewing and lecturing, and running after Erdogan and working with him and even takes the breath with him. As a result, Erdogan has been showing the first signs of wear and tear for nearly two years.
Now Erdogan is in a situation where his voice and tone do not have the same passion and energy as before, and the viewer can sometimes imagine that Erdogan is continuing his words by force and with difficulty.
His gait has also changed somewhat, and there are obvious signs of a tired president and leader in Erdogan’s behavior.
Erdogan, 67, has spent at least 30 years working around the clock and spending a lot of energy. He is still spiritually determined to be constantly active, but this is not in line with the current state of his body.
Is Erdogan’s survival a strategic and extraordinary issue?
Until a few years ago, the AKP, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan on horseback, won all elections, and the party’s hundreds of powerful cadres, technocrats and bureaucrats in various fields provided very successful examples of management and services. It has left no room for criticism and excuses from the opposition.
At that time, inflation and unemployment had not reached the current unbearable level, there was no news of rent and corruption in the government and the ruling party, Erdogan accepted the advice of dozens of Amin’s advisers and deputies, and in the polls, with his fiery speeches, opponents of Erdogan himself believed that no leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had been able to be popular and powerful at this level.
As a result, at that particular moment, Erdogan’s life and death were a vital issue, and by the way, huge budgets, equipment and weapons, and very special vehicles and skilled personnel were used to protect Erdogan.
In other words, Erdogan was Emad Kheima and the most important pillar and condition for the continuation of the victories of the ruling party. But this should be asked: Is it the same now, and if Erdogan is absent, will his party fail?
From anesthesia to cancer rumors
In 2006, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan briefly fainted in a ceremonial car. The driver panicked and left without removing the car switch. As a result, the car’s security lock was activated and the anesthetized Turkish Prime Minister was left alone for 8 minutes.
The guards barely managed to break the glass with a large mallet and oust Erdogan. It was later reported that he had no particular problems and that the anesthesia was due to fatigue and low blood pressure. Although the opposition media exaggerated the news, it was soon forgotten.
It was first reported in 2012 that Erdogan had cancer. At the time, many of Turkey’s leading media outlets belonged to the private sector and economic and political groups opposed to Erdogan, and as a result, some journalists were so credible that their talk shows attracted millions of viewers. One of these people was the famous Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand.
In a live interview, he asked Erdogan very bluntly: Do you have cancer? “No,” Erdogan replied. I’m perfectly healthy.
Interestingly, Mehmet Ali Beyrand himself contracted cancer shortly after the interview, and Erdogan told him in a direct telephone call that he had gone to a holy site in Istanbul with his wife and daughter in the middle of the night to pray for her recovery.
Birand died shortly after the start of the treatment process, and later none of the Turkish journalists ever dared to ask such a question.
Finally, in the last two decades, Erdogan has played an important role in the contemporary history of Turkey and has always been in the spotlight of the regional and world media.
But since the AKP has also become embroiled in traditional relations and personality cults and has failed to come up with a possible alternative in stature, the party’s fate has been linked to Erdogan, and as a result, the issue of Erdogan’s life and death in the media and political circles, has become particularly important.
