Turkey ‘playing dirty’

ALLEGATIONS: RUSSIA ACCUSES ERDOGAN FAMILY OF OIL TRADE WITH IS

Heat between the two nations goes up, as accusations of illegal deals fly.

Russia on Wednesday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of involvement in illegal oil trading with Islamic State (IS) jihadists, ratcheting up the heat in a bitter dispute over Ankara’s downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes.

The Turkish strongman accused Moscow of “slander” over claims his country had bought oil from IS, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to meet his counterpart from Ankara for the first high-level face-toface talks since the ferocious war of words erupted last week.

Ties between Nato member Turkey and Russia have been strained since Ankara shot down the jet on its border with Syria on November 24, with President Vladimir Putin accusing Ankara of downing the jet to protect oil supply lines to Turkish territory.

But the defence ministry accusations against Erdogan are the first implicating the Turkish strongman directly.

“The main consumer of this oil stolen from its legitimate owners Syria and Iraq is Turkey,” deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov told journalists.

Erdogan angrily dismissed Russian claims that Ankara is trading in oil with jihadist groups, insisting he would resign if allegations were proved true.

The United States also rejected Moscow’s accusation.