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Rumors of Erdogan’s Health Problems Ring False

Despite mounting speculations about his health, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan looks pretty healthy for a man who has been alleged with having colon cancer.
Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he addresses the media before leaving for Turkmenistan at Esenboga Airport in Ankara August 15, 2013.  Erdogan called on Thursday for the U.N. Security Council to convene quickly and act after what he described as a massacre in Egypt, during a news conference in Ankara. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX12M4D

Frustrated with the speculation surrounding his health, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, Aug. 15, “Thank God, I am well. I’m learning ... from you about which hospital I was treated at and for what. Nothing as such happened though. I just took time to rest after Eid.” 

On Aug. 12, Yurt, an opposition-leaning newspaper of minor circulation, ran the headline: “Was He at the Hospital?” The paper claimed that Erdogan became ill after going to the mosque on the first day of Eid to mark the end of Ramadan. “Although he has the custom of visiting his parents' graves on the eve of the Eid each year, Erdogan broke the tradition this year, and visited them a few days earlier. He disappeared after going to the Suleymaniye mosque for the Eid prayer,” the paper wrote. 

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