Pushkov: Turkey’s Senior Officials’ Link to Trade in Stolen Syrian Oil Can Hardly Go Unnoticed by Europe
MOSCOW- The links of Turkey’s senior leadership to trade in oil, which is being illegally supplied to Turkey from Syria and Iraq, can hardly go unnoticed by European public and will tarnish the image of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Alexei Pushkov, the Russian State Duma deputy in charge of foreign policy, said in an interview aired by the Rossiya 24 TV news channel on Wednesday, Itar Tass reported.
Earlier, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov accused Turkey’s senior leadership and personally President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of being involved in buying the oil stolen by ISIL terrorist organization from Syria and Iraq.
“Turkey is the main consumer of this oil stolen from its legitimate owners – Syria and Iraq.
According to received information, the country’s (Turkey) senior leadership, President Erdogan and his family are being personally involved in this criminal business,” Antonov said adding he expected the reaction to be serious.
“The leaders of France, Germany and other countries will be forced to take this fact into account and make certain corrections to their policy because if it is really so, it means that their NATO ally is cooperating the Turkey, which is the number one enemy for Europe and is posing a terrorist threat to NATO,” Antonov said.
According to Pushkov, Erdogan has a checkered reputation of an unpredictable politician who is hard to deal with.
The Russian deputy does not expect NATO to subject Erdogan to public criticism because Turkey is an exclusively vital country for NATO.
“NATO leaders and Western leaders in general know how to play down information, which does not fit in into their plans and policy. I believe they will try to hush up this information too,” Pushkov said.
H.M