Turkish President Erdogan to Attend Nuclear Plant Opening Ceremony Amid Health Rumors

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The head of the Turkish Presidency’s Communication Department, Fakhruddin Altun, denied, on Wednesday, the “allegations” related to the health of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Turkish “TRT” channel.

According to a tweet posted by Altun, via Twitter, Erdogan will participate, Thursday, via video, in the opening ceremony of the first nuclear power plant, “Akkuyu”, in southern Turkey.

He said, “No amount of misinformation can cast doubt on the fact that the Turkish people stand by President Erdogan,” and attached to his tweet a picture of some of the tweets about Erdogan being ill.

Activists on social media circulated a video clip of Erdogan’s interview with the Turkish channels Kanal 7 and Ülke TV, during which he was exposed to a health problem.

The Turkish president returned to the interview after a brief pause, saying in a video clip that was re-published by the ruling Turkish “Justice and Development” party’s page on Twitter, where he said: “There was an intense campaign today and I had a severe cold because of these campaigns for a while. I wondered if it would be abused.” We understood if we canceled the program.. We promised to go (to meet). We face such situations from time to time in our busy working hours. I wish you and our fans all the best.”

And the Turkish presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, confirmed, via Twitter, earlier, that the Turkish president was in “good health.”

Later, Kalin mentioned that Erdogan will hold a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Thursday, prior to the opening of the nuclear plant, according to the Turkish news agency “Anatolia”.

The spokesman added, in a speech during his participation in the “Century of Turkish Foreign Policy” conference, that Erdogan and Putin “will discuss, during the phone call, the existing bilateral relations between the two countries, as well as the latest developments related to the Ukrainian war.”

TRT channel said that the construction work of the first unit of the nuclear plant officially began, following an inauguration ceremony attended by the Turkish president and his Russian counterpart, via closed-circuit television in 2018.

She added, “The work of establishing the station gained momentum and a new dimension with the start of building the second unit of the station in 2020, and work began on pouring the first concrete platforms for the third energy unit in 2021, with a ceremony attended by Erdogan and Putin via a teleconference, while the foundation stone for the fourth and final unit was laid.” On July 21, 2022, the intensive construction phases of the project will begin.

And the channel added, “It is expected that the power station, which will produce approximately 35 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, when activated at full capacity, will meet 10 percent of the electricity demand in Turkey alone.”