Turkey on Thursday offered condolences and said it was ready to send aid to Venezuela after two powerful earthquakes killed scores of people, injured hundreds and destroyed buildings near Caracas, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The quakes struck west of Caracas on Wednesday evening and were the strongest to hit Venezuela since 1900, according to Agence France-Presse.
A 7.2 magnitude earthquake first struck San Felipe in northwestern Venezuela, followed by a stronger 7.5 magnitude quake southeast of nearby Yumare.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a statement on X that Turkey stood with Venezuela after the disaster.
“Turkey stands with our Venezuelan friends in these painful and difficult days,” Erdoğan said, extending condolences to the Venezuelan people and government and wishing the injured a speedy recovery.
Venezuela’da meydana gelen iki ayrı depremde hayatını kaybedenlerin acısını yürekten paylaşıyor, dost Venezuela halkına ve hükûmetine başsağlığı ve geçmiş olsun dileklerimi iletiyor, yaralılara acil şifalar temenni ediyorum.
Türkiye olarak bu acı ve zor günlerinde Venezuelalı…
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) June 25, 2026
The Turkish Foreign Ministry also said it was saddened by the deaths and damage caused by the earthquakes and that Turkey was ready to provide assistance.
The ministry said the Turkish Embassy in Caracas was in contact with Turkish citizens in Venezuela and was monitoring their situation.
Turkish Communications Director Burhanettin Duran said Turkey would continue to show solidarity with Venezuela, while Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş also offered condolences.
The United Nations said Thursday it was “fully mobilized” to support Venezuela, AFP reported, citing UN aid chief Tom Fletcher.
Fletcher said he had spoken with acting President Delcy Rodríguez and that the UN was assessing what was needed.
He said the UN humanitarian agency OCHA was working to deploy urban search-and-rescue teams from other countries and that a rapid response team would be sent to support OCHA staff already in Venezuela.
“The coming days will require a massive collective effort,” Fletcher said.
Rodríguez said Thursday that at least 164 people had been killed and more than 970 injured. She said La Guaira, a coastal state north of Caracas, was among the areas hit the hardest.
Rodríguez thanked countries that had offered support after the disaster.
Fletcher said nearly 8 million people in Venezuela were already in need of humanitarian aid before the earthquakes, warning that the disaster could worsen conditions for people already struggling.
Turkey’s offer of help comes three years after the February 6, 2023, earthquakes in southern and southeastern Turkey, which killed more than 53,000 people in the country and left millions homeless.
Venezuela was among the countries that sent help after the 2023 disaster. The Venezuelan government sent a search-and-rescue team and humanitarian supplies to Turkey and Syria after then-president Nicolás Maduro expressed support for the victims.
The 2023 earthquakes also killed thousands in Syria, bringing the total death toll in the two countries to nearly 60,000.