Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has congratulated his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro on winning a new term in office, the Turkish presidency said on Wednesday, after an election widely condemned by the international community.
Venezuela's diplomatically isolated president got a show of support from his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan and Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona on Thursday ahead of a weekend election widely decried as unfair. The United States, the European Union and major Latin American countries have criticized Sunday's vote in which populist President Nicolas Maduro is likely to win re-election to a six-year term.
President Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in a referendum on Sunday to grant him sweeping powers in the biggest overhaul of modern Turkish politics, but opponents said the vote was marred by irregularities and they would challenge its result.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan battled to regain control over Turkey Saturday after a coup bid by discontented soldiers, as signs grew that the most serious challenge to his 13 years of dominant rule was faltering. After hours of chaos and violence unseen in decades, Erdogan ended uncertainty over his whereabouts, flying into Istanbul airport in the early hours and making a defiant speech cheered by hundreds of supporters.
A railway tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait has been opened in Turkey, creating a new link between the Asian and European shores of Istanbul. The Marmaray tunnel is the world's first connecting two continents, and is designed to withstand earthquakes.