Ankara allays social media fears that Erdogan had died  

Turkey was forced on Wednesday to tweet out evidence that President Tayyip Erdogan was still alive after rumours hit social media earlier in the day that he had died, causing consternation across the country.

A video was uploaded to Twitter to put an end to the rumours showing Erdogan arriving in Ankara with his wife on a flight from Istanbul.

According to reports, an adviser to Erdogan’s AKP party Yasin Aktay denied the reports saying: “The news is inaccurate.”

On Wednesday, Erdogan is due to meet Turkic Council heads and then the ambassadors

of Lithuania, Qatar, Mongolia and Ukraine presenting their credentials.

Earlier in the week, Erdogan cancelled plans to attend the global climate conference in Glasgow because Britain failed to meet Turkey’s demands on security arrangements, Turkish media quoted him as saying.

He had been expected to join them in Scotland after attending the G20 summit in Rome at the weekend, but instead landed back in Turkey shortly after midnight on Monday.

Turkish media quoted him as telling reporters on his plane home that Ankara had made demands regarding security protocol standards for the summit in Britain which were not satisfied.

It was announced later on Wednesday that police had launched legal proceedings against 30 people over the rumours.