Ankara - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised Tuesday some EU countries'' decision to recognise Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president of Venezuela.

The Turkish leader expressed his disbelief before his party's legislators that democratic countries in America and Europe have backed an attempted coup d'état carried out by Guaido against President-elect Nicolas Maduro.

'The European Union has used illegal means to overthrow a legitimate government in Venezuela', Erdogan said, adding that anti-democratic measures are 'unacceptable. He considered that, not only in Venezuela's crisis but also in Syria's, Turkey cannot accept imperialism and clarified his country 'respects Syria's territorial integrity and the right of the Syrians to determine their own future', he said.

The president also denied rumors that Ankara could request a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) assuring that the country definitively cut its ties with the IMF in 2013, 'Turkey's ledger with the IMF is closed and will not be opened again', he said.