Last week, speaking in Ankara, he said: “They claim Turkey is buying oil from Daesh” – using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
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“The main consumer of this oil stolen from its legitimate owners Syria and Iraq is Turkey”, deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov said on Wednesday.
“Turkey is the main buyer of oil stolen by IS”.
The U.S. State Department has officially rejected Russia’s claims that Turkey smuggles oil along with militants of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).
However, they did not specify what direct evidence they had Mr Erdogan and his family are allegedly involved.
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. “What a marvelous family business!”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously accused Ankara of downing the plane “to protect the oil supply lines to Turkish territory”, and referred to Turkey as “terrorist accomplices”.
Russia and Turkey have been locked in a diplomatic confrontation since a Turkish jet fighter shot down a Russian bomber aircraft on the Syrian-Turkish border on November 24.
But he stressed that Russian Federation and Turkey should “de-escalate” their dispute.
“This is up to the Turkish people to decide”, he said, adding that Moscow’s aim is to block the sources of financing of terrorism.
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. “We frankly see no evidence, none, to support such an accusation”.
Tensions between Russia and Turkey reached crisis mode last week when Turkey downed a Russian jet after it reportedly ignored several warnings.
Turkish leaders have recently shown signs of seeking to limit the damage to ties.
“It is our obligation…from whatever direction threats should come, we have to take it jointly and with solidarity”, he said.
Mr. Obama urged Mr. Erdogan in a meeting Tuesday to do a better job of sealing its border with Syria to stop the Islamic State’s illegal oil trade.
Officials at the briefing said the Islamic State was earning $3 million a day from the trade, but that figure had been halved after the Russian airstrikes began.
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But he said the tanker trucks are operated by private smugglers, not directly by the IS group, and Turkey is working with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies to seal its border.
