“Look, Russia has to prove that the Turkish republic buys oil from Daesh, otherwise this is a slander”, he added, using an Arabic acronym for IS extremists.
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“Revenues from the sale of oil are one of the most important sources of activity by terrorists in Syria”.
Russian Federation on Wednesday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of involvement in illegal oil trading with Islamic State jihadists, ratcheting up the heat in a dispute over Ankara’s downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes.
Erdogan said that no one had the right to “slander” Turkey by accusing it of buying oil from Islamic State and reminding him of his promise to step down.
“Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region”, said Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, Kremlin-backed RT reported. “What a marvelous family business!”, Deputy Defence Minister Antonov added.
Russian Federation said it was producing only “part of the evidence” for now and did not provide direct proof of their claim that Mr Erdogan and family were involved. Defense officials said that Russian airstrikes against the group has so far halved its oil smuggling income.
Despite the tensions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he is prepared to meet Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu at a conference in the Serbian capital Belgrade this week.
Defense ministry officials showed journalists satellite images that they claimed depicted thousands of trucks carrying oil from areas of Syria and Iraq under IS control.
Putin said that given a push to improve relations with Ankara in recent years, Moscow did not understand why its rival in the Syria war had downed its jet.
I won’t stay in the seat of president for even one minute if Russian Federation proved its claims.
“I think it has shown the real intention of Erdogan, who, let’s say, lost his nerve just because the Russian intervention has changed the balance on the ground”, Assad told a reporter for Czech Television.
The Pentagon rejected Russia’s claim of ISIL oil smuggling into Turkey calling it “preposterous”, “ridiculous” and “untrue”. “The cynicism of Turkish leadership is limitless”. “Everyone must know that we are not that disreputable to make such a deal with terrorist organizations”.
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“We have all grounds to suspect that the decision to down our plane was motivated by the intention to secure these routes of delivering oil to ports where it is loaded on tankers”, he said.
