Addressing a parliamentary group meeting of his Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli lashed out at the United States for the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and first lady over the weekend.
In his speech on Tuesday, the leader of the government ally branded the U.S. capture of Maduro as “illegal.” “I don’t condemn it, I curse it,” he said, as he named Maduro as an elected leader whose legitimacy was internationally recognized.
As he did in his first reaction to the capture on the weekend, Bahçeli likened the capture to the July 15, 2016 coup attempt in Türkiye. “It is the product of the same mindset,” Bahçeli said. “The only difference is that (the Turkish nation) resisted the attempt while (Maduro) was caught asleep.”
Türkiye has called the sides to calm after the incident, while the issue was brought up during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.
Erdoğan said he conveyed Türkiye’s concerns directly to Trump during a phone call, stressing that the country must not be pushed into instability. “We underlined that Venezuela should not be dragged into chaos,” he said.
Erdoğan reaffirmed Türkiye’s support for the Venezuelan people, saying Ankara will continue to stand by "the friendly people of Venezuela in their pursuit of welfare, peace and development."
Türkiye pursues a balanced approach to the tensions as the country maintains good ties both with its NATO ally the U.S. and Venezuela. Bahçeli, nevertheless, was hawkish in his speech as he said Trump “lost all his common sense, moral and mental ability” with the raid in Venezuela. “This is an unprecedented banditry, piracy, abduction. This is straight from "Pirates of the Caribbean." (The United States) staged a show in Caracas and attacked Maduro.
“Nobody and no country are entitled to get away with such shame, such moral decay, oppression, illegitimacy, scandal,” Bahçeli said. “Maduro may have his share of mistakes or may have committed illegal acts. But another country cannot force him out. It is the norm of democracy and laws that someone elected to the office should also leave if they lost an election,” he said.
The veteran politician said the Venezuela example may not be “last of its kind.” “This is a new tactic, ‘forced transfer’ of a leader,” he said, likening the incident to barbarian invasions into the Roman Empire in the third century.
“But here in Türkiye, we are not unfamiliar with this conspiracy. Our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was targeted the same way in Marmaris during the July 15, 2016 coup attempt by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ),” he said, referring to an attempt to capture or assassinate the president in the southwestern town where he was on vacation, by military officers loyal to FETÖ.
“The United States unleashed FETÖ assassins upon us on July 15, but in Venezuela, it preferred direct intervention,” he stated.
He said that the Venezuela issue indicated a disorder and the world still did not know how to put out a potential spark for “a third world war,” reminding that Trump now had Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Cuba, Canada and Greenland in his sights. “The U.S. president said they would run Venezuela and laid bare the dark face of imperialist expansionism or the renewed face of colonialism. Their true goal is to control energy flow, valuable mineral trade. The whole world is now under risk. The international order, which had slight vital signs, is now fully blocked and was dealt a fatal blow,” he warned.
“Now you should understand our ambition to achieve terror-free Türkiye,” he told lawmakers, referring to an initiative Bahçeli spearheaded for the disarmament of the terrorist group PKK. The nationalist leader advocates his efforts to disarm the separatist terrorist group as a way to maintain national unity in Türkiye, especially among Turks and Kurds. The PKK claims to fight for Kurdish self-rule in the southeastern Türkiye.
He said the United Nations has lost its credibility, persuasive power and binding authority, arguing that even the concept of head-of-state immunity is now being openly questioned worldwide.
He said the level of global pressure seen before World War I and World War II is now present again and even more intensely on the world stage.
“The unlawful and illegitimate coup carried out in Venezuela will inevitably have derivative consequences,” he said. “The era of proxy wars has given way to direct use of force. Iran is on edge; the streets are in turmoil, the public is tense and every scenario is on the table. Tensions over Taiwan continue to escalate, and preparations for a possible clash, even war, are being carried out at speed.”
He said the ongoing genocide in Gaza, combined with sovereignty struggles spanning Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia and the Red Sea, and the war between Russia and Ukraine now entering its fifth year, demonstrate that global efforts to achieve peace, stability and security have hit a wall.
“Is it not a shameful hypocrisy that the U.S. administration, while accusing Maduro, embraces and shields Netanyahu, whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against for genocide?” Bahçeli said. “Should this not be seen as an enlarged abscess of a morally and legally decaying international system?”
Bahçeli said imperialism has entered a frenzied phase intertwined with bloodshed, driven by oil. “Oil that whets appetites has made every humiliation and disgrace permissible,” he said.
“To put it plainly and accurately, more dangerous than a shark that smells blood is American imperialism that smells oil,” Bahçeli said. “I must state openly that there is no substantive difference between stealing a horse and stealing energy resources and valuable minerals.”
