Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has dismissed reports that Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s toppled leader, was previously offered asylum in Türkiye.
“We have not received any such news,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying by local media after a Cabinet meeting held Wednesday in Ankara.
Last week, the U.S. military struck a number of targets across Venezuela and abducted Maduro - along with his wife - from his residence in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital on 3 January.
On Monday, Maduro was hauled before a New York City court where he pled not guilty to several criminal charges, including weapons possession and “narco-terrorism.”
Shortly after Maduro’s abduction, U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters that the ousted Venezuelan leader “could be in Türkiye today, but he’s in New York.”
“Maduro has nobody to blame but himself,” Graham asserted, standing alongside U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Trump gave him a way out,” he added.
Graham’s comments appeared to suggest that Maduro had been offered asylum and exile in Türkiye before his abduction and prosecution in the United States.
One day before Graham made the remarks, The New York Times reported that Trump had called on Maduro to voluntarily leave office and “go into a gilded exile” in Türkiye, but that Maduro had rejected the offer.
The New York Times cited unnamed “Americans and Venezuelans involved in transition talks” to support its assertions.
In his remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Erdoğan said Ankara had never received any proposals to this effect in the weeks leading up to Maduro’s abduction.
The Venezuelan leader’s abduction by the United States - and subsequent prosecution - has drawn a range of reactions from international capitals, including strongly-worded condemnations from Moscow and Beijing.
Türkiye has refrained from condemning the controversial U.S. move.
However, Erdoğan has warned that the violation of countries’ national sovereignty and breaches of international law “are risky steps that can lead to serious global complications.”
“In a world where the law of power prevails instead of the power of law, instability, crisis, and conflict are inevitable,” he told reporters on Monday.
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