Israel Matzav

Erdogan denies he has two years left to live

You may recall that I reported here that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has colorectal cancer. One of the Startfor email series leaked by Wikileaks claims that Erdogan has only two years to live. Erdogan has now taken the trouble to deny that he only has two years left.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday dismissed as "impudent" rumors about his health based on an e-mail released by WikiLeaks claiming that he had only two years to live.

"Allah is the owner of our soul," Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AKP party in Ankara. "It is Allah and only Allah who will decide how long I will live."

The prime minister, who turned 58 a few weeks ago, has undergone two successive operations on his intestinal system, one on November 26 last year and the second on February 10.

A long period of convalescence after the first operation has prevented Erdogan from travelling overseas, while leading many to speculate on his state of health.

But Erdogan has repeatedly said that the surgeons had taken out polyps from his intestines and there had been no trace of cancer.

Polyps can be cancerous or non-cancerous. The fact that there were polyps doesn't prove that there was no cancer - in fact, they make it more likely that there was cancer than would have been the case if there were nothing.

Erdogan is scheduled to travel to South Korea on March 26 and 27 and to Iran on March 28. Let's see if he makes those trips.

Labels: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Stratfor, Wikileaks

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:42 AM