Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a longtime ally of deposed and incarcerated narco-terrorist dictator Nicolás Maduro, is looking for a role in the crisis currently unfolding in Venezuela – and hoping to protect the investments Turkey made with the corrupt socialist regime.
Erdogan had a phone conversation with President Donald Trump on Monday and, considering Erdogan’s long association with the perpetrator Trump just tossed in jail, the Turkish president’s tone was rather muted.
Middle East Eye described Erdogan’s criticism of the U.S. operation that captured Maduro as “moderate,” consisting mostly of platitudes about “international law.”
“The violation of nations’ sovereign rights and the trampling of international law are risky steps that can lead to serious complications globally,” Erdogan reportedly told Trump.
Erdogan said that Venezuela “must not sink into chaos or instability” and stressed that Turkey “wants neither chaos, nor confusion, nor tensions in its region or elsewhere.”
“When force prevails over law, [then] instability, crises, and conflicts continue,” Erdogan said – a sentiment that would come as a surprise to the Kurds, after Erdogan repeatedly invaded Syria to use force against them.
Erdogan said he would “strive to act in the interests of Turkey and the friendly Venezuelan people,” who have “on many occasions demonstrated their friendship toward our nation.”
The friendly Venezuelan people seem quite happy to see Erdogan’s pal Maduro behind bars, which could be one reason Erdogan took a soft touch with Trump. Another could be Erdogan’s concern about the billions of dollars his government pumped into the Maduro regime, in a somewhat desperate attempt to build Turkish influence in the Western Hemisphere.
Although Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Erdogan was surprisingly blunt about laying the foundations for an anti-Western global alliance with Maduro – who invited Erdogan’s interest by staunchly supporting him during the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.
Maduro was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Erdogan for surviving the coup. Bilateral trade between Turkey and Venezuela nearly doubled in the first year afterward and, when the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuelan gold in 2018, Turkey began importing metric tons of the precious metal.
Turkish trade with Venezuela soared to over a billion dollars in a year, before the U.S. told Erdogan to back away from Venezuela’s gold in 2019. One reason for America’s ire was that Turkey’s gold imports made it harder for forensic analysts to track the proceeds from Maduro’s cocaine empire.
When Turkish mob boss Sedat Peker became a social media sensation in 2021 by posting exposés of shady business dealings by Erdogan cronies, gold and cocaine trafficking with Venezuela figured prominently in his allegations.
Turkey has major investments in natural gas, petroleum, and mining to consider, including facilities that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to construct. Maduro protected Turkey’s investments to a degree that successor governments might not – especially if Erdogan antagonizes Trump.
Erdogan has been taking some heat from the Turkish opposition for going wobbly in the face of Maduro’s arrest. Ozgur Ozel, chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), flatly accused Erdogan of cowardice on Saturday.
“Your friend Trump has arrived – he violates international law, bursts into your brother Maduro’s bedroom with his wife, ties his hands, blindfolds him, and takes him away. How tragic that you now remain silent in the face of this picture?” Ozel taunted Erdogan.
“Now that you need to defend the world order, your silence legitimises Trump’s coup against another country. You fear Trump, on whom you feel dependent,” Ozel hooted.
“Turkey’s foreign policy is conducted not through bombastic and opportunistic slogans, but with statesmanship, within the framework of our state and nation’s interests,” Erdogan’s communications director Burhanettin Duran shot back.
One of Erdogan’s political allies, Nationalist Movement Party chair Devlet Bahceli, twisted the knife by remarking that Trump’s capture of Maduro was reminiscent of the 2016 coup against Erdogan.
“The method used against Maduro is identical to the one used then. On July 15, 2016, the United States failed to achieve its goal through the will of the Turkish nation, and today it has launched a similar attempt in Venezuela,” Bahceli said, implying the U.S. government was behind the attempt to overthrow Erdogan.
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