Webdesk: On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suddenly left a live TV interview and went to the toilet. When he came back, he apologised and said he had a stomach bug.
The 69-year-old leader had made three campaign speeches earlier in the day. The parliamentary and presidential elections were set for May 14 and were expected to be very close.
Erdogan was supposed to end the day with an interview on Ulke TV and Kanal 7. However, the interview started more than 90 minutes late. But ten minutes into the interview, the stream stopped in the middle of a question, making the camera shake and the reporter get out of his chair. A person that wasn’t on camera could be heard saying, “Oh wow.”
Erdogan came back to the interview about 15 minutes later to apologise for leaving suddenly. He said, “Yesterday and today were hard work. I got sick because of that.”
As he spoke, the president looked tired and his eyes seemed to be watering. He took a few more questions and then ended the show.
Erdogan and his party with roots in Islam have been in charge of Turkish politics for the past 20 years, but the upcoming election will be a big test for his rule. Polls show that he is tied with the leader of the opposition, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, or that he could lose the race.
Kilicdaroglu sent Erdogan his best wishes by tweeting, “I send my best wishes to Mr. Erdogan,” right after the news about the event came out.
Polls show that opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu could beat Erdogan in the upcoming election, which could be a big threat to Erdogan’s two decades of power.
