Russian Defence Ministry presented the evidence that Turkey government and Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself are funnelling millions of dollars in illicit oil revenues to Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
Russian Defence Ministry presented the evidence that Turkey government and Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself are funnelling millions of dollars in illicit oil revenues to Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
As a part of it, they also exposed three key routes of oil transportation from Syria and Iraq to Turkey during the today’s news briefing at the National Defence Control Centre of the Russian Federation in Moscow. Yesterday Erdogan had promised to resign if Moscow could prove collusion with Isil.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, and his family of personally involvement in a multi-million dollar oil smuggling operation that is funding terrorists from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil), The Telegraph cites Russia’s top generals.Officials released satellite pictures and drone surveillance footage, alleging they show oil tankers ferrying “industrial quantities” of oil along three roads from ISIL-held areas to Turkey. Mr Antonov and three senior Russian generals who hosted the briefing provided no evidence specially linking Mr Erdogan and his family to illegal oil smuggling, said The Telegraph.
"Turkey is the main consumer of the oil stolen from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq. According to information we've received, the senior political leadership of the country - President Erdogan and his family - are involved in this criminal business,” Anatoly Antonov, a deputy defence minister, told reporters and several dozen foreign military attaches summoned at short notice to the army’s high-tech national defence command centre in Moscow, reports The Telegraph.
They also claimed to describe three main from Syria and Iraq into Turkey, most of which they claimed comes from fields near Dier ez-Zor in eastern Syria. The western route reaches Turkish ports on the Mediterranean coast, the northern route - the Batman oil refinery in Turkey, the eastern one - a large transshipment base in the town of Cizre, the TASS said.
Pro-government media in Turkey dismissed the claims as impossible, saying the roads shown by Russia are controlled by Kurdish rebels and the Syrian army as well as President.
“Turkey has not lost its moral values; we’re not buying oil from a terrorist organisation,” he said.
According to the US Department of Defence, the USA denied any ties between Ankara and Islamic State.
“We flatly reject any notion that the Turks are somehow working with ISIL. Preposterous. And really very, kind of ridiculous,” Steve Warren, Pentagon spokesman, said. He called Turkey “a great partner” to Washington in fighting against IS terrorists in Syrian and Iraq.
Moscow and Ankara had enjoyed a pragmatic and occasionally close relationship in recent years, but have found themselves at loggerheads after backing opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, noticed The Telegraph. The Russian-Turkey relations strained after Turkey shot down Russian warplane near the Syrian border.
