Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says Turkey will repent “more than once” the downing of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian-Turkish border, stating that Moscow will not turn a blind eye to Ankara’s “aiding of terrorists”.
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Russia will not forget Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian bomber, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday in his address to the Federal Assembly.
Putin further evoked the term “Allah”, the Islamic and Arabic word for God, saying the Turkish political elite lacked wisdom and judgement. “And it seems Allah chose to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by relieving them of their sense and judgment”. “They should know that we do not equate them and part of the current Turkish leadership, which holds a direct responsibility for the deaths of our troops in Syria”, Putin said.
“The main consumer of this oil stolen from its legitimate owners Syria and Iraq is Turkey”, deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov told journalists at a packed briefing. Russia hotly denies any airspace violation and has announced an array of sanctions against Turkey, including a ban on fruits and vegetables from Turkey and halting the sale of package tours to Turkey; Russians are an important component in Turkey’s tourist industry.
Erdogan angrily dismissed Russian claims that Ankara is trading in oil with jihadist groups, insisting he would resign if allegations were proved true. “That means no shelter to bandits, no double standards, no contacts whatsoever with any terrorist organizations, no attempts to use them for some selfish goals, no criminal, bloody business with terrorists”.
“We will be reminding [them] again about what they’ve done and they’ll be regretting it – we know what to do”, he added. “We are expecting them to change their language”, Erdogan said, accusing Moscow of reacting to the incident in an “emotional” way.
He was apparently referring to the spat caused by the downing of a Russian plane by Turkey.
Russia’s top brass on Wednesday accused the Turkish president and his family of personally benefiting from the illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants.
The TurkStream project would see four pipelines carrying Russian natural gas under the Black Sea, linking southern Russia to western Turkey.
The strikes at the Omar oil field in eastern Syria came only hours after Britain’s Parliament authorized military action in Syria against the Islamic State group, also known as Isil, Isis or Daesh.
It is possible that ISIS could have smuggled oil via Sinjar before it was re-captured by US-backed Kurds last month, but that would only help the group smuggle oil to its Raqqa stronghold in Syria – not to Turkey.
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One was killed while parachuting to the ground – in circumstances yet to be fully explained – while a second was rescued by Russian and Syrian forces from the Syrian side of the border.
