I think it’s clear which way the future in Turkey will proceed. I just wonder how long arm sales will continue - and membership of NATO.....
The Times:
Erdogan and Nicolás Maduro cement alliance with ‘golden handshake’
President Erdogan has promised to build a mosque in the Venezuelan capital in a meeting with President Maduro during the first state visit of a Turkish president to the country.
The two leaders, both of whom are battling economic crises and have found themselves increasingly isolated on the world stage, met in Caracas yesterday as Mr Erdogan took a detour on his route home from the G20 summit.
Referring to Mr Maduro as “my brother”, Mr Erdogan also said that the two countries will strengthen their trade ties — a riposte to the United States, which has imposed sanctions on the increasingly erratic Venezuelan leader.
The Turkish president said that Venezuela was facing “manipulative attacks from certain countries and acts of sabotage from economic assassins” — a charge he also levelled at Washington this year when it levied sanctions against Ankara in response to the detention of Andrew Brunson, an American evangelical pastor, who has since been freed.
Bilateral trade between the two countries has risen six-fold to more than $1 billion this year. That includes huge exports of Venezuelan gold — one of the commodities under embargo — to Turkey for refining. Figures from the Turkish treasury show that $900 million of gold was imported from Venezuela in the first nine months of this year........