A day after President Obama tried to smooth over tensions between Turkey and Russia, a top Russian official accused the Turkish president and his family Wednesday of engaging in an illegal oil trade with the Islamic State extremist group in Syria.
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Antonov added that Turkey was the main consumer of ISIS oil, and cited satellite imagery allegedly showing oil tanker trucks crossing the Syria-Turkey border.
“According to available information, the highest level of the political leadership of the country, President Erdogan and his family, are involved in this criminal business”, Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov told the briefing in Moscow.
Antonov also drew attention to the fact that the son of the Turkish President heads one of the largest energy companies, whereas Erdogan’s son-in-law serves as the Minister for Energy.
“What a marvelous family business!” said Antonov sarcastically.
Turkish officials had denied similar allegations earlier in the week saying that Russian Federation wanted to “cover up” its violation of Turkish airspace.
Relations between the two hit their worst in recent memory after Turkey downed a Russian jet near the Syrian border last week, prompting Moscow to impose a raft of sanctions on Ankara.
He added: “We understand that some of the Turkish leaders, notably Mr. Erdogan, will not step down and will not admit anything”.
“We will meet with the Turkish minister of foreign affairs, we will hear what he has to say”, Lavrov said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart in Nicosia.
Over the past few years, the Turkish government has been accused of supporting several rebels groups in Syria who seek to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad. The worst confrontation between Russian Federation and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member since the Cold War has complicated French President Francois Hollande’s efforts to forge an alliance with Putin and the US against Islamic State following last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Turkey is committed to sealing its border along areas in Syria that are controlled by Islamic State.
It was the most serious incident between Russian Federation or the Soviet Union and any North Atlantic Treaty Organisation state in half a century.
Mr Obama’s words came as the Pentagon said the USA would increasingly rely on special operations forces to battle ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, where they have seized huge swathes of land.
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“The Turkish leadership, particularly Erdogan, won’t resign and won’t acknowledge anything even if their faces will be smeared with the stolen oil”, he stressed.
