Leaked Stratfor email stirs Turkey PM cancer scare

A leaked email from security analysis company Stratfor said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had terminal cancer and just two years to live, a claim denied by officials who said Turkey's most powerful politician was in good health.

Cancer rumours started after Erdogan had surgery on his lower intestine in November but did not gain media prominence until Tuesday when the Taraf newspaper reported the email leak on its front page.

The email, between two colleagues at U.S.-based Stratfor, which provides geopolitical analysis to paying subscribers, was released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks as part of a massive leak of the company's correspondence.

The email said doctors had removed a 20-cm (8-inch) part of Erdogan's colon during the first operation on November 26. He had a second procedure last month.
"The prognosis is not looking good, though. The surgeon said they were estimating two years for him," said a copy of the December 10 email accessed on the Internet.

The report was based on intelligence from a source identified as Faruk Demir who obtained the information from an "old classmate friend" of the lead surgeon who operated on Erdogan.

Stratfor described Demir as a former National Security Council official, adviser to Erdogan and an energy expert. Demir, on his website, describes himself as an energy security analyst who has worked for the prime minister's office.

In a press statement on his website, Demir said the report was a lie and that all he knew about the issue was what he had read in the media.

Taraf quoted the chief surgeon who operated on Erdogan as saying the cancer report was "a complete lie". Another doctor who observed the surgery said Erdogan did not have cancer and there was no tumour, the paper said.

An Erdogan aide contacted by Reuters following the Taraf report dismissed the Stratfor email as "speculation and gossip".

"The prime minister's health is very good," the aide said.
 

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