Turkey's President Erdogan to refute Guaido

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "No one who escaped from Venezuela to Turkey" he said. Juan Guaido, opposition leader and self-declared president of Venezuela on Saturday tweeted that some top government officials had fled to Turkey.

In his speech Tuesday (26 February 2019), President Erdoğan said the following on Turkish Broadcaster NTV: Maduro is a chosen leader. Guaido is not an elected leader, he is the speaker of the parliament. Even though you're not an elected leader, people are ashamed. Someone's throwing you there. You shouldn't be able to aspire to such a thing, even though the people of Venezuela do not choose me there. It's like they're talking about hunger and misery. I was just there a while ago. There's no such thing. It is a blow to Venezuela's gold, diamonds, the operation of confiscation is nothing like. The same thing happened in Africa. No one has escaped my country from Venezuela. The state in Venezuela is not reset. We have trade relations between us. Any authorized revenue from there shall be discussed with the authorities here. There's no such thing as escaping. Guaido Turkey tribe thinks the state. Being a statesman is not easy.

Turkey supports the President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and has pledged to develop trade ties.