Diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey were recently shaken after the Russian Su-24 was shot down near the Turkish-Syrian border by Turkish forces on November 24.
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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.
Turkey would have cause to regret its actions “more than once”, he said, promising Russia’s retaliatory actions would be neither hysterical nor unsafe. “The terrorists are using these receipts to recruit mercenaries, buy weapons and plan inhuman terrorist attacks”.
Even though Ankara has denied allegations, numerous world’s top news agencies admitted that Moscow’s claims were not groundless.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also underscored that if the border is closed Ankara will not be able to accept refugees from Syria.
“We have the proof in our hands”.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Thursday work on Turkish Stream, a pipeline meant to pump Russian gas into southeastern Europe via Turkey while bypassing Ukraine, had been suspended.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday that no foreign ground troops had been requested from any country and that their deployment would be considered a “hostile act”. We did not hear anything new. The militants shot and killed the downed plane’s pilot while he was descending on parachute and also killed a Russian marine who was involved in rescuing the plane’s co-pilot.
USA officials said coalition air operations have seriously degraded the jihadists’ oil infrastructure, but that in any case most of the crude pumped from its wells was absorbed inside Syria’s war zone economy.
During the briefing, reporters were shown satellite images that ministry officials said showed columns of the tanker trucks taking on cargoes of oil at loading facilities in areas of Syria and Iraq controlled by IS, and other photos said to show the vehicles crossing into Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has challenged these claims, arguing “if you allege something you should prove it”. Every day it created different lies. “And I guess Allah chose to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by stripping it of its sanity”.
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Russian airforce has struck almost 1,500 targets all over Syria over the past nine days, the military said, its bombers now flying under cover of strategic fighter jets following the downing of a plane by Turkey last week.
