Turkey‘s main parties and political leaders have expressed their critics, concern and condemnation following the US military operation in Venezuela that culminated in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in the early hours of 3 January.
The operation, which involved US special forces and included airstrikes in different parts of Caracas, ended with Maduro and his wife being ‘extracted’ in the early hours of the morning onto a military vessel, and then transferred to New York to face federal charges of drug trafficking and weapons smuggling.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, a key ally of Erdoğan‘s government, compared the operation with the failed 2016 coup in Turkey. “The military intervention carried out by the United States in Venezuela, an illegal and unjust attempt to remove Maduro from power, is a conspiracy known to us,” he said in statements reported by Turkish media.
“The method used against Maduro is identical to the despicable attempt against our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, carried out by FETÖ (Gülen). The US, which failed to achieve its goal in the face of the will of the Turkish people on 15 July 2016, has attempted a similar action in Venezuela,” the Turkish nationalist politician insisted.
Turkish opposition accuses Erdoğan of remaining silent in the face of Trump
The harshest criticism came however from the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP); its leader, Özgür Özel, accused Erdoğan of not standing up to US President Donald Trump over his intervention in Venezuela. “When Maduro held unfair elections and treated his own people improperly, you backed him by calling him ‘my brother’. Then you were also wrong,” Özel wrote in a message posted on X on 3 January.
“At that time, Erdoğan was saying ‘my brother Maduro’, ‘my friend Maduro‘. Today, when abuses are being committed against Venezuela, when the United States is dismantling the United Nations system and Trump tramples on the principle established 400 years ago by the Treaty of Westphalia (that ‘countries shall respect the borders of others, shall not interfere in internal affairs and shall recognise national sovereignty within international law‘), Erdoğan does not dare say a single word,” the Turkish opposition leader stressed.
“Now your friend Trump came, violated international law and took your brother Maduro and his wife from their bedroom, tying their hands and covering their eyes. Now, sadly, you are silent in the face of this image,” Özel finished off, accompanying his message with a photograph of the moment of the Venezuelan leader’s arrest. “Now that you should defend the international order, your silence is tantamount to defending Trump’s coup d’état in another country,” he said.
“We do not accept any action against international law”, Turkish government responds
Ömer Çelik, spokesman for Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), described Özel’s statements as “grave” and defended Erdoğan’s international record as a defender of legality and human rights, while calling the “violation of national sovereignty and international law” as “unacceptable“.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç also condemned the US operation in statements reported in the Turkish press, but he also criticised the Turkish opposition leader: “Turkey’s foreign policy is not based on centres of power, but on international law and the will of its people. We will not accept any action that violates international legality and political legitimacy,” the minister said.
Other political parties in Turkey with parliamentary representation also unequivocally condemned the US military operation in Venezuela to arrest Maduro. The pro-Kurdish DEM party called the US action a “declaration of illegality on a global scale” and a violation of the UN charter. For his part, İYİ Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu described the US intervention as an act of “brutality”: “In a world that is rapidly rushing towards the absence of laws and institutions, we are once again aware of how important it is to protect our Republic and our national identity”.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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