Erdogan accused over IS oil

The defense ministry officials showed the journalists what they said were satellite images depicting thousands of trucks carrying oil from IS-occupied areas in Syria and Iraq into Turkey.

“We have recently received additional reports that confirm that oil from ISIL-controlled territories is delivered to the territory of Turkey on an industrial scale”, he said, according to TASS news agency.

Turkish middlemen, supposedly without their government’s knowledge, buy oil from the Islamic State. Russian Federation said it was producing only “part of the evidence” for now.

Tensions between Russian Federation and Turkey are at an all time high after Ankara’s fighter jet shot down Moscow’s SU-24 bomber on 24 November for reportedly violating its airspace.

He said US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has supported Turkey in the past and would announce fresh measures shortly but stressed they were not linked to the downing of the Russian jet along the Syrian border. This is a brilliant family business!

Russia’s deputy defence minister, Anatoly Antonov, said: “Turkey is the main consumer of the oil stolen from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq”.

But the defence ministry accusations against Erdogan are the first implicating the Turkish leader directly, as the Kremlin refuses to let the pressure drop after slapping economic sanctions on Ankara.

(For an assessment of these claims, read this.) Assad, Putin’s ally in the Syrian civil war, has also been accused of buying oil from the Islamic State, a group that his forces are ostensibly fighting.

“We know the price of Erdogan’s words”, Antonov continued, in response to the Turkish president’s denial and promise to resign if it were proved true.

Russian Federation began airstrikes in Syria at the end of September and claimed during the press briefing Wednesday that they have managed to cut down on oil smuggling that has helped fund ISIS. Cut to Wednesday’s news conference in Moscow: Officials presented photographs of what they said wereoil-delivery convoys at Syria’s border with Turkey.

Over the past few years, the Turkish government has been accused of supporting several rebels groups in Syria who seek to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday called on Turkey to step up the fight against the IS and to seal the border with Syria to stop the traffic of gunmen and cargos for terrorists.

In the bitter debate about where the Russian warplane was flying when it was shot down, the United States took Turkey’s side.