Turkey opposed what he called the 'one-sided' sanctions
Shut out of the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro traveled to Ankara this week to receive the kind of ceremonial welcome Washington has long sought to deny him — cavalry escorts, wreath-layings, and a warm embrace from Turkish President Erdoğan. The visit is less a diplomatic triumph than a map of the world's fracture lines: sanctioned governments and defiant middle powers quietly assembling an alternative order, one gold shipment and bilateral agreement at a time. That Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov was conducting business in the same city at the same moment was, if nothing else, a candid portrait of where the edges of Western influence now run.
- Washington's exclusion of Maduro from the Summit of the Americas did not silence him — it sent him eastward, toward Moscow, Tehran, and Ankara, where the welcome mat remains out.
- Turkey and Venezuela have quietly built an $850 million trade relationship, with Venezuelan gold flowing into Turkish vaults as U.S. sanctions strangled Caracas's access to conventional markets.
- Erdoğan publicly condemned the sanctions as 'one-sided' and pledged solidarity with the Venezuelan people, signaling that Ankara's defiance of American pressure is deliberate policy, not diplomatic accident.
- Lavrov's simultaneous presence in Ankara — his plane turned away by three NATO members — made the Turkish capital a living tableau of sanctioned powers finding common ground beyond the Western system.
- Three new bilateral agreements in banking, agriculture, and tourism suggest this is not a courtesy visit but the institutional deepening of a relationship built to last.
Nicolás Maduro arrived in Ankara to a formal military welcome — cavalry flanking his limousine, a wreath laid at Atatürk's tomb — the kind of state ceremony that Washington has spent years trying to make impossible. His visit to Turkish President Erdoğan came at a pointed moment: the Summit of the Americas was convening in Los Angeles without him, Cuba, or Nicaragua, all deemed unworthy of invitation by the United States.
Rather than absorb the snub quietly, Maduro turned it into a tour. Russia, Iran, and Turkey — each either sanctioned or sufficiently independent to ignore American pressure — became his itinerary. In Ankara, he found more than symbolic hospitality. Trade between the two countries had climbed to nearly $850 million, and Venezuela's gold commerce with Turkey had surged as sanctions cut Caracas off from other revenue streams. For a government hemorrhaging foreign currency, Turkey had become something close to a lifeline.
Erdoğan made his sympathies plain, calling the sanctions against Venezuela 'one-sided' and expressing hope of visiting Caracas the following month. The two governments signed three agreements covering banking, agriculture, and tourism — the architecture of a long-term partnership rather than a passing transaction.
Adding texture to the moment, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov was conducting his own business across the same city, having been denied airspace by three NATO members on his way in. Whether he and Maduro actually met was never confirmed, but their overlapping presence in Ankara told its own story: a loose coalition of sanctioned and defiant governments quietly building alternative networks of trade and diplomacy, with Turkey — pragmatic, NATO-adjacent, and increasingly independent — serving as one of its preferred meeting grounds.
Nicolas Maduro arrived in Ankara on Wednesday to a formal military welcome, his limousine flanked by ceremonial cavalry as he pulled up to the presidential palace. The Venezuelan leader was there to lay a wreath at the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk before meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—a courtesy extended to few world leaders these days, given that Washington has largely isolated Maduro's government through sanctions and diplomatic exclusion.
Maduro's visit came at a pointed moment. Just across town, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was conducting his own business in the same capital, having arrived two days earlier after NATO members Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro refused to let his plane cross their airspace. Both men represent regimes that have become pariahs in Western capitals: Venezuela under crushing U.S. sanctions, Russia under international condemnation for its invasion of Ukraine. Turkey, which borders the Black Sea like Russia and maintains a more pragmatic foreign policy than many NATO allies, welcomed them both.
The Venezuelan president was in the midst of a broader Eurasian tour, a diplomatic pivot born of necessity. The United States had declined to invite him to the Summit of the Americas, the regional gathering taking place in Los Angeles from June 7 to 10. Cuba and Nicaragua were also excluded. Rather than accept the snub quietly, Maduro was making the rounds among the handful of nations willing to host him—Russia, Iran, and now Turkey—each of them either sanctioned themselves or defiant enough to ignore American pressure.
Turkey's embrace of Maduro reflected something more than mere diplomatic courtesy. The two countries have been building economic ties with visible momentum. Trade between them had climbed to nearly $850 million, according to Erdogan's own accounting. More significantly, Venezuela's gold trade with Turkey had surged as U.S. sanctions choked off Caracas's access to other markets and revenue sources. For a country hemorrhaging foreign currency and struggling under economic collapse, Turkey represented a lifeline.
At the palace, Erdogan made his position clear. Turkey opposed what he called the "one-sided" sanctions against Venezuela and pledged to stand with the Venezuelan people. He expressed hope of visiting Caracas himself the following month. Maduro, in turn, thanked Turkey for support during the COVID-19 pandemic and announced that the two nations had signed three new agreements covering banking, agriculture, and tourism—the kind of institutional deepening that signals long-term commitment rather than transactional convenience.
Whether Maduro and Lavrov actually met during their overlapping time in Ankara remained officially unconfirmed. But their simultaneous presence in the Turkish capital was itself a statement: sanctioned regimes finding shelter in countries willing to maintain normal relations, building alternative networks of trade and diplomacy outside the Western-dominated system. Erdogan, who had become the first Turkish president to visit Venezuela in 2018, was positioning Turkey as a bridge to isolated capitals—a role that suited his broader foreign policy of maintaining independence from Western pressure.
The visit also carried a whiff of the surreal. Years earlier, Maduro and his wife had drawn criticism for dining at an expensive Istanbul steakhouse while millions of Venezuelans faced poverty and hunger. Now he was back, this time as a guest of state, his country's gold flowing into Turkish vaults, his government's survival increasingly dependent on the goodwill of nations like this one that refused to join the American embargo.
Citações Notáveis
We will always stand with the friendly and brotherly people of Venezuela— Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkey opposed the 'one-sided' sanctions on Venezuela— Erdogan, at news conference with Maduro
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does Turkey matter so much to Maduro right now? He could visit Russia or Iran.
Turkey is different. It's not ideologically aligned with Venezuela the way those countries are. Turkey is pragmatic—it trades with everyone, it sits between Europe and Asia, and Erdogan has shown he won't automatically follow Washington's lead. That makes it valuable.
But isn't Turkey a NATO member? Doesn't that create tension?
It does, and that's the point. Erdogan walks a line. He's in NATO but he also buys Russian weapons, maintains ties with Iran, and now deepens relations with Venezuela. He's signaling that Turkey answers to Turkey first.
The gold trade—is that just commerce, or is it something else?
It's survival. U.S. sanctions have cut Venezuela off from normal banking and trade. Gold is one of the few things they can still sell, and Turkey is willing to buy it. Without that, Caracas has almost no way to generate hard currency.
What does Lavrov's presence in the same city mean?
It's a visible alignment. Two sanctioned regimes' top officials in the same place at the same time, being hosted by a country that refuses to isolate either one. It sends a message to Washington that the world isn't as unified against them as it might appear.
Is Erdogan taking a real risk here?
Some risk, yes. But Erdogan has calculated that the benefits of maintaining independence and access to these markets outweigh the cost of American disapproval. He's betting that Turkey is too strategically important for the West to seriously punish.