It still goes up there tension between Russia and Türkiye. The latest attack comes from the Kremlin, which in a press conference convened for the occasion made not exactly light accusations against the Turkish president Recep Erdogan: complicity with IS terrorists. “The main consumer of stolen oil from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq, is Turkey,” said Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov.
"Based on the information available - continued the representative of the Moscow government - the highest level of the country's political leadership, President Erdogan and his family are directly involved in this criminal activity“. Moscow also speaks of “irrefutable evidence, not only on oil trafficking, but also on arms trafficking across the Turkish-Syrian border", as argued in the same conference by Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Rudskoi, who also underlined that "the US-led international coalition does not conduct air raids against IS tankers and infrastructure in Syria for oil production and trade".
"Erdogan's resignation is not our goal, it is a task that belongs to the Turkish people" concluded Antonov, underlining that "a control of these thefts" is necessary. The reply was not long in coming: “No one has the right to slander us”Erdogan said, reiterating that he is ready to step down in case Russia proves his allegations. "I have not lost my values to the point of buying oil from a terrorist organization," added the Turkish leader.
