“No one has a right to engage in slander against Turkey by saying that Turkey is buying oil from Daesh (IS)”, Erdogan said in comments broadcast by Turkish television on a visit to Qatar.
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“According to our data, the political leadership of the country [Turkey], including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in this criminal business, ” Antonov told the journalists in Moscow.
“We never said oil smuggling from ISIL is not a problem”, he said, using an alternative acronym for IS. This isn’t the first time that claim has surfaced. “If there is any evidence, let them present it, we’ll consider [it]”, he said, as quoted by TASS.
After Turkey downed a Russian bomber in November, saying it had violated Turkish airspace near the Syrian border, a charitable bakery that once fed thousands of internally displaced Syrians may have fallen victim to Moscow’s desire for revenge. The Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday released an array of satellite and aerial images which it said show hundreds of oil trucks streaming across the border.
Erdogan has refused to apologise for shooting down the Russian plane, which Turkey says had strayed into its air space and ignored repeated warnings.
One was killed while parachuting to the ground – in circumstances yet to be fully explained – while a second was rescued by Russian and Syrian forces from the Syrian side of the border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected Russian claims that he and his family are profiting from trade in oil with the Islamic State group.
“The fundamental backstory is that the Turks and Russians have found themselves engaged in a proxy war in Syria”, says Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“I am asking Mr. Putin, would you remain?” Lavrov said he would meet Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting of foreign ministers in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.
Tensions between the countries have flared since the downing, with Putin describing the act as “a stab in the back by the terrorists’ accomplices”.
Putin, whose administration has already announced sanctions against Ankara including a ban on the import of some Turkish foods, and reintroduced visas for Turkish visitors, insisted Turkey would be made to regret its actions.
Ankara is expecting Moscow to approach the situation around the downed Sukhoi Su-24 with sangfroid, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu told reporters after meeting with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on December 3.
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Putin said in his speech that Russia’s air campaign in Syria, which started on September 30, is meant to fend off a terror threat to Russian Federation posed by militant groups in Syria that include people from Russian Federation.
