istanbul turkish president recep tayyip erdogan on saturday appeared in public for the first time in three days after a stomach infection kept him off the campaign trail before key polls smiling and dressed in a red windbreaker the 69yearold leader walked out on the stage of an istanbul aviation festival and tossed out flowers to flagwaving supporters he arrived together with his close ally azerbaijani president ilham aliyev and libyan prime minister abdelhamid dbeibah both countries have fought wars using turkeys combat drones which will feature prominently at the weekend aviation event erdogan had been lying low since getting sick live on television on tuesday night turkeys health minister fahrettin koca has said erdogan is suffering from gastroenteritis the digestive problem is easily treated and usually clears up in a few days but it has disrupted erdogans attempts to seize momentum in the runup to turkeys most important election in generations on may 14 erdogan looked healthy addressing the crowd with a microphone in his hand describing government efforts to help the victims of a massive february earthquake that claimed more than 50000 lives but he refrained from addressing his absence or the health scare instead proclaiming the launch of a new century of turkeyhatred and grudges erdogans illness came at one of the more vulnerable moments of his twodecade rule most polls show erdogan slightly behind his secular rival kemal kilicdaroglu in turkeys most pivotal election of modern times his islamicrooted partys control of parliament through an alliance with an ultranationalist group is also under threat erdogan has a penchant for campaigning and most analysts thought he could reverse the dip in polls on the campaign trail he appeared in five cities over two days before getting sick on latenight tv erdogan tried to compensate by appearing at events via video link launching a nuclear power plant with russias vladimir putin on thursday and inaugurating a bridge the next day but the events lacked the electric atmosphere that erdogan often generates when he speaks to adoring crowds at events aired live across the nation of 85 million people the rock concert atmosphere of his past campaigns has also been muted by mourning over the death and destruction wrought by the 78magnitude earthquake across swathes of turkeys southeast erdogan has decided against playing music at his appearances out of respect for the victimsbroad opposition he has instead focused on listing his achievements including the construction of millions of new houses and his push to resurrect turkeys military might the drones have played a central role in turkeys projection of power most recently helping ukraine fend of russias advance on kyiv at the start of the kremlins invasion last year but erdogan is facing the toughest challenge of his rule kilicdaroglu has formed the type of broadbased coalition that erdogan had mastered in crafting over 20 years the opposition alliance includes some of erdogans former allies liberals islamists and nationalists as well as kurds erdogan returned to his preferred theme