Russian Federation has accused Erdogan and his family of personally profiting from the oil trade with Islamic State, which controls a large chunk of Syrian territory, including a number of oil fields.
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Mr Putin warned Turkey that Russia planned to adopt further measures against it for the incident – beyond the sanctions it has already imposed which include banning imports of Turkish fruit and vegetables, and preventing Russians from going on package holidays to Turkey.
Government officials described the claims as baseless, while a senior official from the ruling AK Party founded by Erdogan said they were part of a narrative being spun for a Russian domestic audience.
Ever since Turkish jets downed the Russian bomber that allegedly violated its airspace on the Syrian-Turkish border, Ankara has looked to its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partners for support. “Actually, Russia does not believe this either”, said Erdogan, referring to the alleged oil trade with IS group.
“President Erdogan and his family are involved in this criminal business”, Antonov said.
Russian Defense MinistryDefense ministry officials sit under screens with satellite images on display during a briefing in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 2, 2015.
“We know why this happened”, Putin said.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for downing a Russian tourist plane in Egypt in October, killing 224.
It had a message it wanted the whole world to hear: that the faces of Turkey’s leaders, including President Erdogan, were “smeared with stolen oil”.
“At the moment, we have received additional information confirming that oil from the deposits controlled by ISIL militants enters Turkish territory on an industrial scale”, Putin said Monday.
“There is no Turkish government complicity in some operation to buy illegal oil from [ISIL]”, he said. “This oil in being supplied to Turkey on a large industrial scale via improvised pipelines composed of thousands of oil truck tankers”, he said.
“Turkey has no military means and power to counter Russia’s actions in the region without the help of the Americans and others”, said Aktar. Though a key gateway for Islamic State oil smuggling is in the southern corridor of Turkey, Erdoğan has sidestepped any concrete efforts to attack the sales route. The Russian pilot was killed by militants after bailing out from the plane and a Russian marine was also killed on a rescue mission to retrieve a second pilot.
“In order to defeat the IS, we need to deliver a powerful, destructive blow to its financing sources”, Antonov said.
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The inflammatory allegations – the latest in a ferocious war of words – came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had agreed to meet his Turkish counterpart for the first high-level face-to-face talks since the incident last week.
