Russia’s defence ministry accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of involvement in illegal oil trade with Islamic State jihadists, as a dispute rages over Ankara’s downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes.
Russian military issued a map showing the trade route of alleged Turkey’s purchase of oil from ISIS via Iraq and Syria.
“The main consumer of this oil stolen from its legitimate owners Syria and Iraq is Turkey. According to available information, the highest level of the political leadership of the country, President Erdogan and his family, are involved in this criminal business,” deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov told journalists.
Ties between Turkey and Russia have shattered after Ankara shot down the jet on its border with Syria last Tuesday, with President Vladimir Putin accusing Ankara of downing the plane “to protect the oil supply lines to Turkish territory”.
Erdogan has rubbished earlier Russian claims that Turkey is involved in the illegal oil trade with groups, including IS, in Syria and Iraq, insisting he would resign if allegations were proved true.
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“Today we are presenting only part of the facts in our possession, that there is a unified team of bandits and the Turkish elite working in the region to steal oil from its neighbours,” Antonov said at the packed press conference in the defence ministry.
“This oil enters the territory of Turkey in huge quantities, on an industrial scale along a living pipeline of thousands of oil tankers,” he said.
Antonov claimed that “terrorists in Syria” earned $2 billion from the illegal oil trade and “that is why IS so protects its thieving oil extraction infrastructure in Syria and Iraq.”
Satellite images were provided at the briefing, showing apparent columns of tanker trucks being loaded with oil at facilities.
The military has stated that since Russia’s bombing campaign, ISIS oil smuggling has been severely reduced- in turn affecting Erdogan’s income something that could explain why Erdogan took the extreme measure of shooting down the Russian jet.
“The income of this terrorist organization was about $3 million per day. After two months of Russian airstrikes their income was about $1.5 million a day,”Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy said. The videos below show Russian strikes blowing up apparent oil storage facilities.
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According to RT, Satellite images of oil trucks, videos on airstrikes on ISIS oil facilities and maps of the routes taken by oil smugglers were detailed at the briefing. The Russians claim that there are 8500 tankers at least, traversing the Syrian-Turkish border. Three main routes were used to smuggle oil into Turkey; one to the Turkish port of Dortyol, another to the port of Iskanderun where the oil can be sent overseas.
2000 fighters, 250 vehicles and 120 tons of ammunition was sent by Turkey in just the past few weeks to refuel terrorists.
It was also revealed that the US-led coalition has not struck these oil tankers and oil infrastructure for “some reason”… the Russians will send the US intel on the locations of these oil infrastructure, assuming of course that the lack of intel was the reason for their hesitation.
Various reports have also backed Russia’s statements, with the Free Syrian Army claiming to have documented evidence proving that ISIS’s oil is being purchased by Turkey.
Retired French General Dominique Trinquand has stated that Turkey is either not fighting ISIS or doing very little, and is certainly allowing all forms of smuggling through its borders including oil.
ALSO READ: Russian President Vladimir Putin Orders Sanctions Against Turkey
US Vice President Joe Biden even made the stunning admission that Erdogan’s regime was backing ISIS with “hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons…”.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday hit back saying Turkey had proof Russia was involved in illegal oil trade with the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, countering “immoral” Russian allegations that his own family was importing oil from the jihadists.
“We have the proof in our hands. We will reveal it to the world,” Erdogan said in a televised address in Ankara.
Erdogan repeated that he would resign if Moscow proved the allegation and said it was actually Russians who were involved in oil dealings.
“Who is buying oil (from IS)? Let me say it. George Haswani, holder of a Russian passport and a Syrian national, is one of the biggest merchants in this business,” Erdogan said.
In November, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Haswani, who was also placed on an European Union sanctions list, for serving as a middleman for oil purchases by the Syrian regime from the IS group.
The new US sanctions also apply to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a wealthy Russian businessman and long-standing president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) who was formerly president of the southern Russian region of Kalmykia.
(With PTI inputs)