An episode of illness that manifested itself in a live television interview Tuesday was enough to feed a disinformation campaign against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. As he canceled his daily appearances on Wednesday, social media was awash with false rumors.
As officials denied claims that Erdoğan suffered from a severe medical condition, rumors were swirling on Twitter based on an alleged myocardial infection the president suffered. Some even claimed he was hospitalized and his family rushed to his bedside.
Meanwhile, a Twitter user posted the video of "Putin’s convoy rushing to the Kremlin," allegedly after the Russian president heard that Erdoğan would join him at an event at Akkuyu Nuclear Plant in Türkiye, was in critical condition.
Fahrettin Altun, head of the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications, one of the closest names to the 69-year-old leader, rebuffed "baseless" claims about the president’s health on Thursday. He stressed that Erdoğan was in robust condition. "They (the opposition) are trying to gain political advantage through baseless distortions even about the health condition of our president.
"Our president is on duty with great strength, health and vigor," Altun told an event in Istanbul. The opposition leaders quickly wished well to Erdoğan after the incident in a TV interview and blamed it on a stomach bug. Still, the supporters of the opposition parties rushed to social media to circulate claims about the president’s health.
The nation stands with its leader, who works with "inexhaustible" effort, Altun said. "There was intense campaign work yesterday and today, and because of this campaign work, I had a stomach ailment," Erdoğan explained after he reappeared for the interview again on Tuesday after a brief pause.
Hours later, he tweeted that he would not attend his scheduled appearances in three Turkish cities on Wednesday as he was "taking a day’s rest upon doctor’s advice." The president also canceled a live television interview scheduled for Thursday but was due to address a ceremony for nuclear fuel delivery to the Akkuyu plant via video link.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Thursday that Erdoğan was in good health and would continue his daily scheduled programs as soon as possible. "The infectious gastroenteritis he has experienced has lessened its effect," Koca said, speaking in the central Konya province.
CGTN America’s social media account reported that Erdoğan suffered a myocardial infarction and was hospitalized in critical condition. "His wife and family members have been requested to come to the hospital," read a tweet shared on the account on Wednesday.
Altun included the screenshot of the tweet, with the accompanying message that they were categorically rejecting the baseless claims about Erdoğan’s health. The account of the U.S. branch of the company, a state-run global television network of the People’s Republic of China, later deleted the tweet. Mao Ning, the spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said she was unaware of the tweet details while answering a question posed by Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday. Ning said Türkiye was "a friend of China" and China "does not intervene in internal affairs of friendly countries."
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also lashed out at claims about Erdoğan’s health. "He will be back in the field in a few days as energetic as he was before," Çavuşoğlu told an event in the southern province of Antalya on Thursday. "Western media writes and publishes what they wish and in an immoral way."
"Members of FETÖ (Gülenist Terror Group) even give an estimate of the remaining lifetime of our president. Only Allah decides the moment of people’s death. Our president is in good health," he said.
The specifically crafted spread of disinformation and manipulative schemes on social media venues like Twitter to influence public perception about standing candidates or parties ahead of elections has long been general knowledge. However, there is now a growing fear in Türkiye that one such operation, implemented through the manipulation of trending topics and paid promotions, is targeting the integrity of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, broadly described as the most critical vote in the country’s recent history.
Deliberate concealing of apolitical content or content created by the supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the promotion of tweets from opposition leaders and supporters, as well as accurate and bot accounts run by terrorist organizations like the PKK and FETÖ on user timelines has been strikingly on the rise, especially in the past months.