Erdogan Vows to Resign if Russia’s Accusations Proved True

Local Editor

Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected on Wednesday the Russian accusations over illegal oil trade between himself and the takfiri group of 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL).

"No one has a right to engage in slander against Turkey by saying that Turkey is buying oil from ISIL," Erdogan said in comments broadcast by Turkish television on a visit to Qatar.

He was speaking after the Russian defense ministry stated that Erdogan and his family were involved in the illegal oil trade with ISIL, raising the stakes in a week-long standoff after Turkey shot down a Russian war plane in Syria and killed one of its pilots.

Erdogan, wearing the old Ottoman dress, stressed that he would resign if the accusations were proven to be true and appeared to suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin should also consider his position.

"I won't stay in the seat of president for even one minute if Russia proved its claims. But those who spread this slander shouldn't retain their seats either."

"Turkey has not lost its moral values so as to buy oil from a terrorist organization," he added referring to ISIL, although Turkish authorities arrested the editor-o-chief of Cumhuriyet local newspaper for publishing photos that reveal illegal oil transfer from Syian ISIL-held territory to Turkey.

The shooting down by Turkish fighter jets of a Russian warplane is Syria on November 24 has plunged relations between Moscow and Ankara into their biggest crisis since the Cold War.

Turkey claims the plane was in its airspace and ignored repeated warnings but Russia insists it never crossed the border from Syria.

Russia started official economic retaliation against Turkey on Wednesday by imposing sanctions that will hurt Ankara's food exports.

"Adding fuel to the fire benefits no one," said Erdogan, who signed a memorandum of understanding on gas supplies from Qatar, Turkey's closest ally in its war on the Syrian government and its support for the armed terrorist groups operating in the country.

"If these responses continue we will take our own measures," he warned, without elaborating.

But Erdogan also said Turkey had no intention of escalating the crisis and said the two countries still have potential for cooperation.

"We will use whatever diplomatic language the international diplomacy requires. We don't want this problem to hurt our current relations or potential any further."