Western coup taking place in Venezuela: Russian envoy

By Tugcenur Yilmaz and Muhammed Ikbal Arslan</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido's claim to the presidency is &quot;illegitimate&quot; and part of a &quot;Western-backed coup,&quot; said Russian’s ambassador to Turkey on Thursday.</p> <p>Aleksey Yerhov, speaking at a panel on Turkish-Russian relations in the capital Ankara, said that the West does not care whether the opponent of Venezuela's President Nicholas Maduro is illegitimate.</p> <p>Yerhov called the Western interference in Venezuelan affairs a &quot;coup&quot; against the elected president. </p> <p>He added that the Western countries impose their own interests in the name of democracy.</p> <p> </p> <p>- ‘Arab Spring showed failure of street protests’</p> <p>Speaking on the situation in Syria, the diplomat expressed hope that a new era is set to begin after the end of the Arab Spring.</p> <p>The Arab Spring showed that street protests do not bring hope or prosperity, he said.</p> <p>Yerhov said that Turkey, Russia, and Iran have taken constructive steps to peacefully resolve the Syrian crisis by using diplomacy, but that a solution remains distant.</p> <p>He also stressed the importance of progress in Idlib, Syria and understanding the nature of disputes east of the Euphrates, where Turkey has promised an operation against the terrorist YPG/PKK. <br> <br> On the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, Yerhov questioned Washington’s post-withdrawal agenda.</p> <p>Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on protesters with unexpected ferocity.</p> <p>Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.</p> <p> </p> <p>