“For us, nothing has changed”, a senior Turkish official told Reuters.
Advertisement
It also dramatically undercuts the United States military’s strategy in Syria, which centers on blowing up oil trucks in the area to stop the smuggling.
“We have received additional information which unfortunately confirms that this oil, produced in areas controlled by [ISIL] and other terrorist organisations, is transported on an industrial scale to Turkey”. “What a marvellous family business!” he added.
Monday was not the first time that Putin has claimed that Turkey buys oil from ISIL.
On Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Defence said it could prove these allegations.
An undated still image, taken from a video released by Russia’s Defense Ministry on December 2, 2015, shows what it described as the Turkish-Syrian border crossing with columns of tanker trucks loaded with oil at installations controlled by the Daesh terrorist group in Syria and Iraq. Turkey dismissed this as “Soviet-style propaganda” on Thursday.
Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Qatar and Azerbaijan respectively this week to reach agreements on importing liquefied natural gas from Qatar and expediting the construction of a natural gas pipeline that carries Azerbaijan’s gas in the Caspian Sea to Turkey and Europe.
Russia has imposed trade sanctions against Turkey, including freezing investment projects and restricting food imports, after the Turkish air force last week shot down a Russian fighter bomber near the Syrian border as it took part in the Kremlin’s campaign against militants in Syria.
The reason for this fact is that Russian Federation has not fulfilled the requirements of Turkey, Erdogan said, not mentioning the requirements of the country.
I will say something very strong here. “We apologise for committing mistakes, not for doing our duty”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to take a tough stance toward Turkey as well, reportedly vowing that Turkey will be made to regret the downing of the plane.
“Our assessment is that there is not a lot of smuggling happening of any significant volume between ISIL controlled territories and Turkey”, the official said.
Although the downing of the jet has unleashed a trade war between Russian Federation and Turkey, they may ultimately be unwilling to sacrifice their deep economic ties.
Advertisement
Turkey depends on outside suppliers for 90.5 per cent of its oil and 98.5 per cent of its natural gas, the president said.
