Erdogan denies cancer reports

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied he has cancer but does remain under doctors' orders not to overdo things after underdoing surgery in November, a report said Friday. Following widespread speculation that the premier may have had cancer, journalist Mehmet Ali Birand revealed Erdogan had broken his silence about his health in an interview with him for an upcoming TV documentary. "No I don't have cancer," Birand quoted Erdogan as saying in his column for Hurriyet Daily News. "(Erdogan) was very clear. There were some polyps detected in his intestines a while ago. If they were not removed, they could have developed into cancer," Birand wrote. The 57-year-old had laparoscopic gastrointestinal surgery on November 26. His surgeon Mehmet Fuzun had said the polyps which were removed were benign. Erdogan resumed his official duties on December 13. He was supposed to fly to Qatar's capital Doha early December to attend a meeting of the Alliance of Civilisations, but the trip was cancelled, fueling speculation on Twitter and Facebook that he had cancer. Birand said the prime minister had made no effort to keep his surgery a secret. "I went out at around 7 or 8 pm in a very normal way and went to the hospital. If anybody had turned their head, they could have seen us," Birand quoted Erdogan as saying. "I was very uncomfortable with aphonia and had back pains for a while (after the surgery). My voice was gone because of the tube inserted down my throat during the operation and my back pains were due to the position in which I was held during the operation," Erdogan said about the surgery. "Doctors are still taking great care of me and telling me not to exhaust myself," said Erdogan, who has been in office since 2003 and heads the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP). No broadcast date has yet been announced for the documentary for the Kanal D network.