Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled a trip to Spain this week, where he was going to attend the European Political Community (EPC) summit, after reportedly falling ill. This is the second time this year that Ankara’s leader has been forced to withdraw from political events due to health issues, POLITICO writes, News.ro reports.

During the election campaign in Turkey earlier this year, 69-year-old Erdogan canceled public appearances and political rallies for three days due to gastroenteritis, which appeared during a live television interview.

This time the Turkish president caught a cold.

Domestically, the Turkish leader was forced to cancel a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

On Thursday, the CPE summit in Granada will be attended by 47 heads of state and government of EU member states, as well as other European states, including Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The CPE summit, which precedes an informal meeting of EU heads of state and government on Friday, aims to “encourage political dialogue and cooperation” and “consolidate the security, stability and prosperity of the European continent”. “.

In Granada, Erdogan was also scheduled to discuss bilateral relations with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

On the other hand, on Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev refused to join a planned parallel meeting with the leaders of Armenia, France, Germany and European Council President Charles Michel, during which he was supposed to discuss the recent crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku took over control of the separatist Armenian region. Backed by Erdogan on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Aliyev insisted on Ankara’s participation in the meeting, which would have been blocked by Germany and France. Then Baku refused the negotiations and ruled out the possibility of discussing the conflict with France, Azerbaijani state media reported.

Despite Aliyev’s cancellation, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will still attend Thursday’s meeting in Spain, the Armenian government said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.