Man recognized to be world's oldest dies in Japan

ANKARA

A former tailor recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living man has died in central Japan at the age of 112.

Kyodo news agency reported Tuesday that Yasutaro Koide had died of chronic heart failure in the early hours of the morning.

Whether he actually was the oldest, however, is open to debate, as a Turkish man living in Siirt in southeast Turkey has laid claim to the title -- although his age is still to be verified by Guinness.

Mehmet Esen was born July 1, 1892, and is now 124 years old, according to his 73-year-old youngest son Abdullah Esen.

Esen told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that his father's claim has never been recognized by Guinness as the family has never sought to contact them.

In the year Koide was born, Istanbul's Besiktas football club was founded and around 3,500 people died in the Manzikert earthquake in the Ottoman Empire, while the year of the birth of Esen saw the founding of the Ottoman institute of statistics and the construction of Turkey's oldest elevator at the Pera Palas Hotel in Istanbul.

According to Guinness, the world's oldest woman is 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt who lives in New York.

It is not known if there is a woman older than Mushatt living in Turkey waiting to be recognized by Guinness.