Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu dismissed Russian allegations that Turkey was buying oil from ISIS as “Soviet-style propaganda” on Thursday and said the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member was doing all it could to secure its border with Syria.
Advertisement
Most recently, Russia’s top generals accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of involvement in a multi-million dollar oil smuggling operation that is funding the Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh).
“We are not planning to engage in military sabre-rattling”, Putin told an audience in the Kremlin.
“No one has the right to slander Turkey, especially the slander of Turkey buying ISIS oil”, Erdogan said.
Defence ministry officials sit under screens with satellite images on display during a briefing in Moscow, Russia, December 2, 2015.
Putin didn’t address a peace process in Syria in his Thursday’s speech, focusing on the need to pool global efforts in the fight against terrorism following the attacks in Paris and the downing of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt. The IS has claimed responsibility for both.
In an interview with Romanian television station Digi24, Naryshkin, who spoke in Russian and was translated by the broadcaster, said: “We know those who did this and they must be judged. Apparently Allah chose to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by taking their sanity”, he said.
Tensions between Turkey and Russia remain high after a Russian fighter jet was downed in Syria last week.
Turkey, along with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies such as the United States and Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states, backs Syrian rebel groups battling the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian Federation has announced sanctions against Ankara banning the import of some Turkish food and reintroducing visas for visitors from the country.
Responding those allegations on Monday, Erdogan had said that he would be ready to resign if Russian Federation managed to prove the allegations.
Antonov claims that Russian defense officials identified three main oil export routes to Turkey: one that leads westwards to Turkish ports on the Mediterranean Sea, one that goes north to the Batman refinery in the southeast of Turkey, and an eastwards route to a base in the town of Cizre (also in the southeast of the country).
Starting this year’s speech with a minute’s silence for Russian victims of terrorism, including the 224 who died when a bomb blew up a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai desert on October 31, Putin directed his anger towards his Turkish counterpart.
The Turkish president recalled the Iranian reports and said he spoke with the Iranian president about the issue.
Advertisement
“In the Cold War period, there was a Soviet propaganda machine. Every day it produces a variety of lies”, Davutoglu said.
