Turkish state media shared on Friday a video of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan playing basketball with a group of young men and women in Istanbul, days after reports circulated about him being in poor health.
Speculation about Erdogan’s health spread on social media after videos of him walking gingerly at an official event last week were posted on Twitter, with users using the hashtag #olmus (dead in Turkish).Turkish cyber police launched an investigation into the social media posts on Wednesday and said they were investigating 30 people who used or retweeted the hashtag.
Rumors about the health of 67-year-old Erdogan have been swirling for years, with one of his doctors going on record in 2011 to deny that he had cancer.
Erdogan underwent a laparoscopic gastrointestinal surgery in 2011.
Rumors sparked about his health in October as well, and at the time, Erdogan’s communications office shared a video of him playing basketball.
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