ANKARA: The United States strongly denied Wednesday a Russian claim that the Turkish government buys smuggled Syrian oil from the Islamic State terrorist (IS) group.
In a televised speech in Ankara Thursday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had “proof” of Russia’s involvement with the Islamic State, adding that he would “reveal it to the world”, according to newswire AFP.
Moscow and Ankara have been locked in a war of words since last week’s shooting down of a Russian warplane by a Turkish air force jet near the Syrian-Turkish border, the most serious incident between Russia and a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation state since the stand-off over Cuba half a century ago.
“We know for example who in Turkey fills their pockets and allows terrorists to make money from the stolen oil in Syria”.
He continued: “We know why it happened and who is behind the toppling of undesirable regimes… thereby opening a way to radicals, extremists and terrorists”.
The president spoke after Russia imposed sanctions against Turkey for shooting down the Russian jet last month, the worst confrontation with a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since the Cold War.
Turkey would have cause to regret its actions “more than once”, he said, promising Russia’s retaliatory actions would be neither hysterical nor risky. Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military’s General Staff said Russian airstrikes on the Islamic State oil infrastructure in Syria had halved the militants’ profits.
“Allah must have punished Turkey’s ruling clique by depriving it of sense and reason”, Putin said.
As more economic sanctions were brought to bear in Moscow, the president said: “If anyone thinks, after this war crime, murdering our people, that they’ll get off with measures hitting their tomato exports or curbs on construction and other sectors, they are mistaken”. The ministry insisted that the images definitively prove Turkey’s massive oil trade with the IS.
Mr Putin said that Russian Federation will take other retaliatory moves against Turkey, but will not engage in sabre rattling.
Erdogan dismissed the accusation as “slander” and vowed to resign if the accusations against him are proved.
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