Turkey and Venezuela: A New Geopolitical Alliance GEAROID O COLMAIN

In a tweet on 6 January, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stated that had made a telephone call to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who assured him of Turkey’s support for Venezuelan sovereignty. As President Maduro is inaugurated for a second term, does this mark the beginning of a new strategic alliance between the two nations, and what would such an alliance mean for Turkey’s relationship with the United States?

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A strategic alliance between Turkey and Venezuela appears contradictory given Turkey’s imperial ambitions and belligerent stance against Syria. But, as I have pointed out before, under Erdogan’s leadership Turkey has emerged as a global imperial power, giving Ankara new possibilities to form independent alliances. Since the souring of relations with the European Union in 2007, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu recalibrated the country’s foreign policy to reflect its desire for increased independence. Davutoglu formulated a “good neighbour “policy towards all the countries contiguous to the former Ottoman hegemon. However, that policy was dramatically reversed in 2011 when Turkey supported NATO’s invasion of Libya by proxy terrorists and the subsequent carpet bombing campaign which destroyed Africa’s richest and most developed country.

Turkey ’s aggression towards Syria from 2011 onwards – where Erdogan repeatedly called for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s overthrow – contrasts markedly with Venezuela’s support and solidarity for the Syrian government. President Maduro, as Venezuelan Foreign Minister, made a declaration in support of Assad, blaming US imperialism for the destabilisation and invasion of the country

by terrorists. Assad had visited Venezuela in 2009 (pictured) where former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described him as a humane and kind patriot.

Turkey was largely responsible for disrupting the emerging multi-polar anti-imperialist alliance between Latin American countries attempting to break free from US domination. For example, Muammar Gaddafi and Hugo Chavez had discussed the possibility of creating a Joint African/Latin American university focused on the economic development of the two continents and intercontinental trade. Gaddafi also proposed the creation of SATO, the South Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a military alliance for the protection of developing countries from Euro-Atlantic imperialism. All that was blown up in 2011 during the Libyan war which Turkey backed; and with the death of President Chavez in 2012, the future of multi-polar development seemed bleak.

It is largely due to the influence of Moscow that Turkey has decided to abandon its reliance on NATO and pursue a more creative and multi-vectored foreign policy. The rapprochement with Moscow began in 2016 and has been a decisive factor in consolidating the Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Hezbollah victory over US, EU, Saudi, Israeli backing for terrorism in the Middle East.

In 1995 Turkish President Suleyman Demirel visited Argentina, Brazil and Chile in an effort to increase Turkish trade and cooperation in the Latin American continent. The visits resulted in the 1998 ‘Plan of Action for Latin America and the Caribbean’. Since then, Turkey has been expanding its influence in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Cuba. Venezuela opened the first Latin American embassy in Istanbul in 2010 and a trade commission was set up between the two countries.

Common enemy or common friend?