Turkey’s strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is looking a little weaker this weekend after dramatically falling ill on live television during campaigning for 14 May presidential and parliamentary elections. Erdoğan, 69, has ruthlessly wielded power, as prime minister and president, for 20 years. His carefully cultivated image is of a tough, indestructible leader. Yet suddenly he appears frail.
Ministers insist that his illness – he has previously had intestinal surgery – is nothing more serious than stomach flu. He rejoined the fray on Saturday.
