TEHRAN (FNA)- The large-scale trade and energy cooperation between the son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ISIL terrorists group was behind the downing of the Russian fighter jet by the Ankara government, media reports said.“The cooperation between Balal Erdogan and the ISIL in Syria and Iraq crude sales is the main reason why Turkey shot down Russia’s warplane,” the Russian-language ‘Trud’ newspaper quoted political analysts as saying.
The report comes as political observers have on numerous occasions announced that the ISIL gains between $40 million to $50 million per month from the sales of oil the terrorist group illegally extracts from the oilfields of Iraq and Syria.
In August, the European media published information showing that a joint British-Turkish company refines and sells the oil extracted by the ISIL.
Two Turkish F-16 fighter jets downed Russia’s SU-24 bomber that was flying in the Syrian air space which resulted in Russia’s harsh reaction and the two countries’ relations strained.
On Thursday, the Russian media reported that Moscow has already deployed S-400 missile defense systems in Syria, a move many political and military analysts see as the start of Moscow’s response to NATO following the downing of its bomber by Turkey over Syria.
The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) next generation surface-to-air missile system has been deployed to the Hmeymim airbase in Syria where the Russian Aerospace Forces group is stationed.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced the deployment of the S-400 systems on Wednesday, a day after Turkish fighter jets had shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber, which had been taking part in Russia’s anti-terror campaign in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists.”
The S-400, an upgrade of the S-300 Growler family, is a new-generation anti-aircraft defense system operated solely by the Russian military. The S-400 ensures air defense using long- and medium-range missiles that can hit aerial targets at ranges of up to 400 kilometers (almost 250 miles).