Putin calls for broad international anti-terror front

Turkey will regret shooting down a Russian fighter jet last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the country’s political elite Thursday.

Turkey’s leadership, including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants, says the Russian Defense Ministry, stressing that Turkey is the final destination for oil smuggled from Syria and Iraq.

Moscow has already responded with measures including bans on some Turkish fruit and vegetables, and in his icy remarks Putin made clear that would not be the end of it.

Turkey insists the plane violated its airspace despite repeated warnings.

France welcomed the first British airstrikes in Syria, saying they were a sign of the European solidarity promised after the deadly November 13 attacks on Paris claimed by IS militants.

“We’ll remind them of what they did, more than once. They earn around $2 billion every year, spending these funds on recruiting gunmen around the world and providing them with weapons, equipment and armament”, he added.

“The Russian sanctions against Turkey won’t knock our country down…Moscow should open diplomatic channels to resolve this crisis instead of imposing sanctions against Turkey”, Davutoglu said.

“Turkey is the main consumer of the oil stolen from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq”. And the Russian leader has not taken his phone calls.

“No one can blame Turkey, no one can expect an apology from Turkey”, Mr Davutoglu said in the speech, which was televised on Turkish television.

Thousands of Russian citizens from Chechnya, Dagestan and elsewhere have joined the Islamic State group in Syria.

Russian Federation has repeatedly been making the claim that Turkey buys oil from ISIL since the incident near the Turkey-Syria border.

“We will never forget their collusion with terrorists”, Putin added Thursday.

Antonov presented photographs and videos purportedly showing routes from IS-controlled oil fields in Syria ending in Turkey, claimed to be worth $3mn of oil per day.

On Monday, as the heat was rising between the two countries, Erdogan demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin back up his allegations with evidence.

On Wednesday Russian military officials laid out what they called “hard evidence” that the Turkish government and members of Erdogan’s family had been involved in illegal smuggling with the group. “Many of them are citizens of Russian Federation and the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries…if they get sufficiently strong to win there, they will return to their home countries to sow fear and hatred, to blow up, kill and torture people”.

“We must leave all arguments and disagreements behind and make one powerful fist, a single anti-terror front, which would work on the basis of global law under the aegis of the United Nations”, he said, addressing lawmakers and top officials in the Kremlin.