Speaking to dozens of foreign military attaches and hundreds of reporters in Moscow, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Russia has evidence showing that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family were linked to the IS oil trade.
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Obama said the U.S.is working with Turkey on how to do a better job to seal Turkey’s northern border through which Islamic State fighters cross with relative impunity, and IS oil, sold to finance its terrorist activities, is exported to other countries.
However, the officials did not provide specific evidence of the involvement of Erdogan or his family in the oil smuggling.
“Turkey is the main customer of this oil that is stolen from Syria and Iraq”.
Early this week, the second shoe finally thudded to the floor, as the Kremlin announced that it had irrefutable proof that not only has Turkey been buying oil from the terror group ISIS but that Erdoğan himself is personally complicit in the deal, providing an economic lifeline to the terrorist organization that Western governments have aligned against.
“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.
Antonov also drew attention to the fact that the son of the Turkish President heads one of the largest energy companies, whereas Erdogan’s son-in-law serves as the Minister for Energy. “What a marvelous family business!”, Deputy Defence Minister Antonov added.
“The United States supports Turkey’s right to defend itself and its airspace and its territory”, Mr Obama said.
But the Turkish president said he would resign if such allegations were proved.
“The Turkish leadership, particularly Erdogan, won’t resign and won’t acknowledge anything even if their faces will be smeared with the stolen oil”, he stressed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Turkey on Monday of shooting down its warplane last week to protect its oil trade with the Islamic State.
Turkey has also supplied the ISIS and Al-Nusra militants with up to 2,000 fighters, 120 tons of ammunition and 250 vehicles, said Chief of National Center for State Defense Control Lt. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, reports RT.
Relations between Turkey and Russia have fallen to a low point since Turkey shot down a Russian jet that it claimed had encroached into Turkish airspace.
“Adding fuel to the fire benefits no one”, said Erdogan, who signed a memorandum of understanding on gas supplies from Qatar, Turkey´s closest ally.
The challenge comes as bilateral tensions continue to escalate following Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet last week. Russian Federation has halted the sale of holiday tours to Turkey – a key tourist destination – and is set to ban the import of Turkish fruit and vegetables, as well as threatening other measures.
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Russian Defense Ministry’s information on IS oil trade will be published online. It said the trucks then took the crude for refining at the Turkish city of Batman. It hopes that closing the border will help sever smuggling ties.
