Erdoğan says Russia’s claims over oil trade with ISIL are slanderous

Sharply raising the stakes in Moscow’s spat with Ankara, Russia’s top military brass on Wednesday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of personally profiting from oil trade with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“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”, said Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, Kremlin-backed RT reported. “The top political leadership of the country, President Erdogan and his family, is involved in this criminal business”.

Antonov pointed the finger at the recent appointment of Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak as energy minister and alleged that the president’s son runs one of the country’s main energy companies.

Erdogan denied the claims, saying he would resign from his post as President if it were true.

The briefing was dedicated to showcasing what Russian Federation says is Turkey’s connection to the oil trade with the Islamic State, and it threatens to shred whatever hope was left for a rapprochement between the two countries.

The shooting down by Turkish fighter jets of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border on 24 November plunged relations between Moscow and Ankara into their biggest crisis since the Cold War. “It would be more logical if the Russians would suggest ISIS is smuggling oil to Syrian-Turkish controlled IS border towns like Jarabulus”.

Officials said that the Russian air force’s bombing campaign had made a significant dent in Islamic State’s ability to produce, refine and sell oil.

“Revenues from the sale of oil are one of the most important sources of activity by terrorists in Syria”.

“Space reconnaissance has reliably showed that after crossing the border, tank trucks carrying oil head to the ports of Dortyol and Iskenderun”, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy told reporters.

Russian Federation has hit back, slapping Turkey with a series of sanctions over the weekend – including bans on Turks’ labour contract extensions, chartered flights from Russian Federation to Turkey and tourism packages to Turkey.

Sergey Lavrov said he will meet Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting of foreign ministers in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

“Last week alone, up to 2,000 militants, over 120 tons of munitions and 250 automobiles were transferred from Turkey to the IS and Al-Nusra groups in Syria”, said Mizintsev. Fuel tankers with oil freely cross the border between Turkey and Iraq, according to Russia’s General Staff.

Some of the smuggled cargoes go to the Turkish domestic market, while some is exported via the Turkish Mediterranean ports of Iskenderun and Dortyol, the ministry said.

The defence ministry officials said the information they released on Wednesday was only part of the evidence they have in their possession, and that they would be releasing further intelligence in the next days and weeks.