'Turkey determined to enhance ties with Venezuela'

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey is determined to carry bilateral relations with Venezuela one step further, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday.

"We resolve to preserve the momentum we have achieved over the past two years and to enhance our relations further," Erdogan said at a news conference alongside his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro in the capital Caracas.

Erdogan reiterated that he is the first Turkish president to pay a visit to Venezuela.

"We hope that high-level visits between [officials of] the two countries will increasingly continue," he added.

Erdogan also said Turkey plans to build a mosque in Caracas at Venezuela's request.

The president said Venezuela handed over two schools affiliated with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) -- the terrorist group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey -- to a Turkish education body.