Turkey Buying Oil from ISIS
The video below has been posted on the Russian Defense Ministry’s website. The new evidence against Turkey is damning, though it is unlikely that Turkish President Erdogon will resign, and Russia is not calling for him to do so. But Russia cannot believe such large scale smuggling of petroleum was unnoticed by the Turkish authorities, and they conclude that the Turkish leadership had to be directly involved in the smuggling. Stolen oil sales are critical to ISIS’ growth and success because without the income provided by the oil, they would have no way to buy weapons, provide training, or attract new recruits, and cutting off such sales would starve the entire movement.
And so the question of Turkey buying oil from ISIS and letting them cross Turkish borders to move the petroleum elsewhere, as well as the inability of the U.S. to discover and shut down such trade, is really at the heart of whether the U.S. (and Turkey) truly want to see ISIS destroyed. At this point one would have to conclude no. A summary of events to date includes the following:
The US-led coalition has failed to intensify strikes on oil tankers and other ISIS oil infrastructure. Russia will send intelligence on potential targets to coalition members, assuming that a lack of intelligence may be the reason for their hesitance.
Russia, for its part, will continue attacking the oil business of the terrorists and expects the US-led coalition to do the same.
2,000 fighters, 250 vehicles and over 120 tons of ammo have been sent in the past weeks from Turkey to terrorists in Syria, fueling the violence in the country.
At least 8,500 oil tankers are used by the terrorists to transport up to 200,000 barrels of stolen oil, according to Russian estimates.
Two other smuggling routes go to Batman refineries from northern Syria and to Cizre hub from Iraq respectively.
Three main routes of oil smuggling to Turkey have been established. One goes to Turkish ports Dortyol and Iskanderun on the Mediterranean coast, where the oil is shipped to other nations.
The Defense Ministry showed aerial footage of oil tankers. The vehicles were said to be traveling across the Syrian-Turkish border in the hundreds.
Cutting the flow of oil is a necessary condition for defeating ISIS. Russia is conducting airstrikes on oil pumps, refineries, transport tankers and other parts of the oil infrastructure. The strikes have resulted in the loss of half of all oil smuggled by the terrorists.
