Warning that Turkey will regret many times for shooting down a Su-24 on the Syrian-Turkish border last week, Putin claimed that Russian Federation is aware of Ankara’s illegal oil trade with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
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“We know for example who in Turkey fills their pockets and allows terrorists to make money from the stolen oil in Syria”, Putin said.
Erdogan said during a speech at Qatar University on December 2 that “no one has the right to engage in slander against Turkey as to suggest that Turkey is buying oil from Daesh (IS)”.
The Turkish president has denied Turkey’s involvement in oil trade with the IS, and said repeatedly that he would resign if Russian Federation proves its accusations.
“Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region”, added the Deputy Minister.
Russian Defence Ministry officials also hit back with claims that Turkey was the main consumer of ISIS oil and that Mr Erdogan and his family were involved in doing business with the militants, citing satellite imagery which they said showed oil tanker trucks heading from ISIS territory to Turkey.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday vowed Turkey would not retaliate against Russia’s “emotional” sanctions imposed after the disputed downing of a Russian war plane. The ministry insisted that the images definitively prove Turkey’s massive oil trade with the IS.
The United States on Wednesday flatly rejected Russian allegations that the Turkish government was in league with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants to smuggle oil from Syria.
Russia’s accusations against Turkey have no grounds, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said earlier.
“We have not lived with natural gas all our lives… this nation is accustomed to hardship”, said Erdogan, while also emphasising that Turkey had suppliers other than Russian Federation.
Relations between Russia and Turkey have nosedived since Turkey shot down the Russian bomber near the Syrian-Turkish border on November 24. When we warned, they said ‘the pilots don’t speak English well and there is a misunderstanding.’ The same problems were also faced in the first violation in Syria … Lavrov said he would meet Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting of foreign ministers in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.
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“We observe…that the current Turkish leadership over a significant number of years has been pursuing a deliberate policy of supporting the Islamization of their country”, Putin had said.
