On Saturday, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made a thunderous return to the campaign trail in western Turkey.
There was a sea of flags and a sizable crowd waiting for him when he arrived in the port city of Izmir under the scorching sun. In a bastion of the opposition, there was a sizable turnout.
There was no indication of the illness that prompted him to miss three days of important activities this week, only a fortnight before crucial elections. After 20 years in power, he will face his strongest challenge yet in the elections for the presidency and the parliament.
The president talked for about 40 minutes, ridiculing the opposition and invoking the threat of “terrorism” while asserting that only he could bring about economic progress in Turkey. It was a confrontational performance that will have comforted his followers and possibly alarmed his critics.