Holding a joint press conference with Venezuelan President Maduro, President Erdoğan said: “I would like to reiterate that we, as Türkiye, will continue to stand by the friendly people of Venezuela as has been the case thus far.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Nicolás Maduro Moros of Venezuela held a joint press conference at the Presidential Complex.
Expressing his pleasure to be hosting President Maduro in Ankara, President Erdoğan described Venezuela as one of Türkiye’s most important partners in Latin America and the Caribbean region.
President Erdoğan underlined that he would never forget President Maduro’s strong solidarity with Türkiye on July 15.
Noting that Venezuela had been one of the first countries to express support to the Turkish government in the aftermath of the heinous July 15 coup attempt, President Erdoğan said that Türkiye, for its part, had been on the side of the Venezuelan people in their most difficult times.
Drawing attention to the role of President Maduro’s strong and brave personality in breaking the multilateral encirclement targeting Venezuela, President Erdoğan said: “Just like Simon Bolivar and Hugo Chavez, my treasured friend has made his name written in his country’s liberation struggle in golden letters. Mr. Maduro’s stance on the Palestinian issue is also praiseworthy. I hereby congratulate him once again.”
“THERE IS A HUGE POTENTIAL FOR COOPERATION IN MANY AREAS”
“During today’s meeting, we reviewed all aspects of our bilateral relations. We are pleased to see that we have a mutual will to expand our cooperation. Venezuela and Türkiye have a huge potential for cooperation in many areas including trade, energy, mining, construction, health, agriculture and tourism. The complementary nature of our economies offers opportunities for cooperation and mutual investment.”
Describing education and culture as an important area of cooperation between the two countries, President Erdoğan recalled that the Turkish Maarif Foundation had opened its third school in Caracas during Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s visit.
“We have hosted in Türkiye 76 Venezuelan youths so far as part of the Türkiye Scholarships. This number will further rise in years to come. Our activities in this area will intensify with the imminent inauguration of a cultural center of the Yunus Emre Institute in Caracas,” the President said.
“WE ARE AGAINST UNILATERAL SANCTIONS TARGETING VENEZUELA”
Stressing the importance Türkiye attaches to cooperation with Venezuela in the area of development, President Erdoğan stated: “TIKA has so far carried out nearly 20 projects in various areas including education, agriculture and healthcare in Venezuela. Like the Yunus Emre Institute, TIKA will also open a center in Caracas. The Turkish Airlines serves as a bridge between us with its seven Istanbul-Caracas flights a week.”
Pointing out that his meeting with President Maduro addressed regional and global issues as well as bilateral relations, President Erdoğan stated: “We have similar views on many international issues. I have once again told Mr. President that we are against unilateral sanctions targeting Venezuela. I especially underlined our principled stance on unilateral sanctions. I would like to reiterate that we, as Türkiye, will continue to stand by the friendly people of Venezuela as has been the case thus far.”
“NATO IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION THAT FACILITATES TERROR”
Answering reporters’ questions following the press conference, President Erdoğan, on Sweden’s and Finland’s bid for NATO membership, said: “Relevant delegations from Sweden and Finland came to Türkiye and held talks with our delegations. We should keep in mind that NATO is an organization of security. NATO is not an organization that facilitates terror. As you all know, Sweden, at the moment, is a country where the PKK/YPG/PYD terrorist organization runs rampant. Even in their parliaments, there are terrorists. As long as these terrorists remain in their parliaments and as long as terrorist organizations continue to hold demonstrations with the pictures of terrorist leaders in the streets of Stockholm and as long as they do this under the protection of the Swedish police, and as long as the Swedish state television continues to broadcast interviews with terrorist leaders, we cannot tell them ‘Go ahead, please, join NATO.’ The same goes for Finland, too. Finland, as well, is engaged in many similar activities unfortunately.”
Stressing that Türkiye doesn’t want to experience with Sweden and Finland what it experienced with Greece and France, President Erdoğan continued his remarks as follows: “Greece had left NATO and our predecessors let it rejoin. France rejoined. What happened? Where are the 5+4, that is 9 US bases right now? They were established in Greece. Against whom they were established? The answer they give is ‘Against Russia.’ We don’t buy it, take no offence. According to the numbers we have, Greece now owes 400 billion euros to Europe. Nonetheless, European countries, I will not mention them by name, delivers significant amounts of weaponry, planes and helicopters to Greece. Likewise, there is also the support of the US. It gives these. Against whom? During a recent luncheon with me he had said ‘let others not come between us, let the two of us hold all the talks without any other country coming between us.’ But as if we had never held these talks, he made speeches against Türkiye and Türkiye’s interests at the US Senate a couple of weeks later. Later on he made similar things at Davos. Take no offence but we favor principled politics, and we as Türkiye don’t agree to politics devoid of principles.”