Erdogan reaffirmed that he would resign if the allegations were proven to be true and appeared to suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin should also consider his position.
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Repeating a call for a new broad worldwide coalition against terrorism, Putin, in an overt reference to Turkey, called on countries to avoid “double standards, contacts with any terrorist organizations, and any attempts to use them for their own ends”.
As British jets opened airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Germany prepared to send troops and aircraft to the region, Russia’s president called on the world Thursday to brandish “one powerful fist” in the fight against terrorism.
“We know for example who in Turkey fills their pockets and allows terrorists to make money from the stolen oil in Syria”, Mr Putin said.
Tensions have escalated between the two countries since Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, shot down a Russian bomber on the Syrian border, claiming it had violated its airspace.
Erdogan said in Qatar that “those who make such claims are obliged to prove them”.
The deputy minister clarified that Russian Federation was not seeking Erdogans’ resignation, but instead sought to demonstrate that terrorist oil was being smuggled into Turkey and ultimately cut off the oil supply lines. The shoot-down, the first time a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation country has downed a Russian plane in more than half a century, triggered a bitter falling out between the two nations, which had developed robust economic ties.
Putin’s tough talk was the just latest broadside in the feud that has erupted between the countries and their strongmen rulers since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Turkey-Syria border November 24.
He harshly criticised Turkey, accusing it of buying oil from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
“It is an illegal government, Russia should see that it is not legal”, Erdogan said and added he spoke about this issue with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on several occasions.
Sealing the border between Turkey and Syria is more important at the moment than finding out who is buying the oil produced by Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL), Lavrov said while speaking with Dacic in Belgrade on Wednesday.
The United States has dismissed Russia’s accusation that the Turkish government is directly benefiting from illegal oil trade with the Daesh in Iraq and Syria. A marine was killed in the following rescue operation.Putin’s address started with a moment of silence to mourn the deceased soldiers, whose wives were also present. 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.
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Britain’s defense secretary says British Tornados struck at oil fields that help finance the activities of the Islamic State group – the first strikes to follow after a vote in Parliament authorizing military action in Syria. “Every day it created different lies …This was an old tradition but it has suddenly reared its head again”, Davutoglu said.
