31 Jan 2019; DW: When opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself Venezuela's interim president last week, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was one of the few state leaders to call Nicolas Maduro to express his unwavering support for the embattled leader. In a sense, the Turkish president was paying his respects to Maduro, who came out in support Erdogan after the failed coup in Turkey in July 2016.
On the telephone Erdogan reportedly told Maduro: "My brother, stand firm." Maduro, meanwhile, received plenty of support on social media from across the world, and especially from Turkey, where the #WeAreMaduro hashtag soon gained popularity. For a change, both those on the political left and supporters of Erdogan agreed on something, namely that Maduro should stay in power. So it was not all that surprising that Maduro gave his first interview after Guaido's declaration to a Turkish television station.
Shared interests
Serkan Bayram, a member of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and chairman of the Turkey-Venezuela Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, says there are political and economic reasons for the increasingly close relationship between both countries. "Turkey is reacting to the fact that a president who was elected by 68 percent of the populace is now being deposed through undemocratic means," says Bayram, who believes that Venezuela's self-declared leader Guaido is being instrumentalized "by global actors."
Turkey, says Bayram, is working to boost trade in general and Venezuela falls within this policy. According to the Turkish government statistics, Turkey in 2018 imported $900 million (€780 million) in precious metals from the Latin American country. Much of this is believed to be gold. And Venezuela announced last year that it intends refine its gold in Turkey, rather than Switzerland, to bypass international restrictions.
There have also been a number of mutual state visits between Turkey and Venezuela since Maduro's first trip to Turkey in October 2016. Returning from the G20 summit in Argentina in late 2018, Erdogan made a stop-over in Caracas, where he lambasted the United States and international sanctions imposed on Venezuela.
Erdogan acting out of self-interest
Journalist Metin Yegin believes Erdogan's interest in closer ties with Venezuela is not purely economic. "Erdogan has attempted to act as America's eastern nemesis," he says. "He is cultivating that image now. And Erdogan wants to show his supporters that he is on the side of the oppressed."
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