Putin Calls for United Front Against Terror as He Lashes Turkey

Relations between Russia and Turkey have plunged since November 24 when a Russian warplane was downed by a Turkish F-16 near the border with Syria, killing one of the pilots. “Apparently Allah chose to punish Turkey’s leadership by depriving them of senses and mind”, Mr. Putin said. Look what they’re doing.

Turkish officials have said the plane violated Turkish airspace and had been warned repeatedly.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a news briefing that U.S. information was that Islamic State was selling oil at the wellheads to middlemen who in turn were involved in smuggling the oil across the frontier into Turkey.

Moscow has said that its warplanes have been targeting terrorist groups near Syria’s border with Turkey, while Ankara has said the Russian raids have been aimed at moderate militant groups made of ethnic Turks who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

“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.

“He asserted that “if someone thinks that after committing heinous war crimes, the murder of our people, it will end with (an embargo on) tomatoes and limitations in construction and other fields, then they are deeply mistaken”.

“No one has a right to engage in slander against Turkey by saying that Turkey is buying oil from Daesh (IS)”, he said while on a visit to Qatar.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly denounced Russian Federation for dragging the name of his family members into allegations of illegal oil dealings with the terrorist organization Daesh.

The Russian Defence Ministry has released footage which it claims shows oil tankers full of oil from IS-controlled territory crossing into Turkey. “The main customer for this oil stolen from its rightful owners – Syria and Iraq – is Turkey”.

“We know why that happened”, he said.

“We shall remind them many times about what they’ve done, and they will regret what they’ve done for a long time”, he said.

Erdogan lashed out at the latest Russian accusations.

During his address, however, Putin appeared to downplay the involvement of the military in Russia’s response.

British Tornado jets took off from the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus before dawn, hours after parliament in London voted 397-223 to support Prime Minister David Cameron’s plan to extend air strikes from Iraq to Syria.