Turkish president refutes oil trade with Daesh claims

Earlier today, the Russian defense ministry announced that Erdogan and his family members are directly involved in illegal oil deliveries from ISIL oil fields in Syria.

“The main destination for this stolen oil from Syria and Iraq is Turkey”, said Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov.

Russian Federation supplies Turkey with more than half of its natural gas supplies but Erdogan said he was not troubled by the risk of Russian Federation cutting down exports.

Turkish President Erdogan has challenged Putin and said he will step down if Russian claims that Turkey buys oil from Daesh are proved.

US officials have previously said that there is evidence of Turkish involvement in the buying of black market oil from the Islamic State. “Turkey resells this oil”, Antonov said at a Defense Ministry briefing in Moscow. Moscow has not reported that any of its citizens are held by Islamic State.

But he said the tanker trucks are operated by private smugglers, not directly by the IS group, and Turkey is working with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies to seal its border.

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.

“A united team of criminals and Turkish elites, involved in stealing oil from its neighbors, is acting in the region”. Their strong language reflects their president’s conviction that Turkey has “stabbed Russian Federation in the back”.

Antonov said Erdogan’s son heads a leading Turkish energy company and that his son-in-law has been named Turkey’s energy minister.

It is the latest salvo in the war of words between the two countries, after Turkey shot down a Russian military plane near to its border with Syria last month.

“Turkey has not lost its moral values to the extent of purchasing oil from a terror organization”, he added.

He said there was “no question” of Turkey retaliating against Russian citizens living in the country.

Erdogan strongly rejected the allegation, vowing to resign if Russian Federation can prove it is true that Turkey – let alone Erdogan and his family – engages in trade with the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

“Instead of launching a prolonged investigation into this issue, the obvious for all must be done – the Turkish-Syrian border must be sealed”, Lavrov said at a joint news conference with Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić in Belgrade.

Starting from September 30, Russia’s air campaign in Syria has destroyed 32 oil processing complexes, 11 oil refineries, 23 oil pumping stations and 1,080 oil tank trucks, which slashed profits of terrorists from illegal oil exports from 3 millon dollars to 1.5 million on a daily basis, Sergei Rudskoy, chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, told the briefing.