ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday appeared in public for the first time in three days after a stomach infection kept him off the campaign trail before key polls.

Smiling and dressed in a red windbreaker, the 69-year-old leader walked out on the stage of an Istanbul aviation festival and tossed out flowers to flag-waving supporters.

He arrived together with his close ally, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Libyan prime minister Abdel­hamid Dbeibah. Both countries have fought wars using Turkiye’s combat drones, which will feature prominently at the weekend aviation event. Erdo­gan had been lying low since getting sick live on television on Tuesday night.

Turkiye’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said Erdogan is suffering from gastroenteritis. The digestive problem is easily treated and usually clears up in a few days. But it has disrupted Erdogan’s attempts to seize momentum in the run-up to Turkiye’s most important election in generations on May 14.

Erdogan looked healthy addressing the crowd with a microphone in his hand, describing government efforts to help the victims of a massive February earthquake that claimed more than 50,000 lives.

But he refrained from addressing his absence or the health scare, instead proclaiming the launch of a new “century of Turkiye”. Erdogan’s illness came at one of the more vulnerable moments of his two-decade rule.

Most polls show Erdogan slightly behind his secular rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Turkiye’s most pivotal election of modern times. His Islamic-rooted party’s control of parliament through an alliance with an ultra-nationalist group is also under threat.

Erdogan has a penchant for campaigning and most analysts thought he could reverse the dip in polls on the campaign trail. He appeared in five cities over two days before getting sick on late-night TV.

Erdogan tried to compensate by appearing at events by video link, launching a nuclear power plant with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Thursday and inaugurating a bridge the next day. But the events lacked the electric atmosphere that Erdogan often generates when he speaks to adoring crowds at events aired live across the nation of 85 million people.

The rock concert atmosphere of his past campaigns has also been muted by mourning over the death and destruction wrought by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake across swathes of Turkiye’s southeast.

Erdogan has decided against playing music at his appearances out of respect for the victims. He has instead focused on listing his achievements, including the construction of millions of new houses, and his push to resurrect Turkiye’s military might.

The drones have played a central role in Turkiye’s projection of power, most recently helping Ukraine fend of Russia’s advance on Kyiv at the start of the Kremlin’s invasion last year. But Erdogan is facing the toughest challenge of his rule.

Kilicdaroglu has formed the type of broad-based coalition that Erdogan had mastered in crafting over 20 years.

The opposition alliance includes some of Erdogan’s former allies, liberals, Islamists and nationalists, as well as Kurds. Erdogan returned to his preferred theme on Saturday of portraying opposition members as Western “agents” bent on undermining Turkiye.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023