ALL OF ERDOGAN’S MEALS TESTED AT HOME, ABROAD

The Daily Star, Lebanon
March 4 2015

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan arrives for a welcoming ceremony at
the Presidential Palace in Ankara, March 3, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

ANKARA: Every meal that goes before Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan is rigorously tested both at home and abroad for fear of
possible assassination, his personal doctor said.

And now a special food analysis laboratory will be built at Erdogan’s
controversial presidential palace to make sure all his food is safe
to eat, Cevdet Erdol told the Hurriyet newspaper Tuesday.

“It’s usually not through bullets that prominent figures are being
assassinated these days,” Erdol said.

Currently, samples of the president’s food are analyzed in laboratories
in both Ankara and Istanbul and during his visits abroad, he said.

There is also a five-member emergency team on duty at the heavily
guarded palace 24 hours a day, analyzing everything he eats and drink
to guard against radiation, chemical materials and bacteria.

Meanwhile, a court has ordered the prime minister to pay 10,000 Turkish
lira ($4,000) in compensation to an artist for calling his sculpture
– meant to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia – a
“monstrosity.”

Erdogan expressed his dislike in 2011 of Mehmet Aksoy’s giant “Monument
to Humanity,” which was being erected in the eastern city of Kars,
prompting local authorities there to dismantle it. Aksoy then sued
Erdogan for “insult.”

Anadolu Agency said the court ordered Erdogan to compensate Aksoy
for the mental anguish caused.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress