Russia: Erdogan involved in oil trade with ISIS

Mr Erdogan on Wednesday called Russia’s response “disproportional” and said Turkey would take their “own measures” if they continued, without specifying what they would be.

The tensions between Russia and Turkey show no sign of abating, with Anatoly Antonov, the Russian defense minister, repeating the allegation that Turkey trades oil with the Islamic State-and taking it one step further: accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of personally profiting from the business.

Erdogan has denied Russian accusations that Islamic State earns cash by selling oil to Turkey. “According to available information, this illegal business includes the upper political leadership of the country, President Erdogan and his family”, Antonov added.

“The main consumer of this oil stolen from its legitimate owners Syria and Iraq is Turkey”.

He was speaking after the Russian defense ministry claimed Erdogan and his family were involved in the illegal oil trade with IS, raising the stakes in a week-long standoff after Turkey shot down a Russian war plane on the Syrian border.

There were cases of illegal smuggling of arms and oil committed by them especially in Iraq and Syria.

Putin said Monday that Moscow had received “additional data” which confirm that Daesh oil “enters the territory of Turkey”.

“Turkish borders are open to the ISIL and other terrorists to commute between Syria and Turkey”, Farouq Loqoqlou said.

“In order to defeat the IS, we need to deliver a powerful, destructive blow to its financing sources”, Antonov said.

“Nobody in the Western world is questioning the fact that the Turkish President’s son is the head of one of the biggest energy companies and his son-in-law is now the Minister of Energy”, added the Russian minister. Over the past two months, the airstrikes have destroyed more than 1,000 tankers of crude oil and dozens of oil refining facilities belonging to terrorists.

If the allegations by Russian Federation are proven to have merit, the Turkish leader said he would resign from office.

” ‘What a great family business!’ Antonov said with sarcasm. They went into someone else’s country, they are robbing it without compunction”.

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.

“Like any sort of black market smuggling operation, if you devote the resources and the effort to attack it, you are unlikely to eradicate it, but you are likely to put a very significant dent in it”, a senior Obama Administration official said previous year.