The Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) oil trade leads to the eastern Turkish oil town of Batman, and has ties to the oil business of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's family, columnist Finian Cunningham told Sputnik.
During a briefing on Wednesday, representatives of the Russian General Staff said that they had identified three main oil routes leading from eastern Syria to Turkey ending up at the Batman refinery. One of the largest centers of oil extraction is the town of Deir Ezzor. According to Cunningham, Erdogan's silence on the issue after offering to resign shows that he is unable to formulate a response.
"He's been caught very precisely in his mendacity. If he did a little to challenge Russia's huge find, the proof it provided, that connects his family, his business with the oil smuggling network of ISIL, he would stand on. And the noose is tightening," Cunningham said.
In the meantime, Sergey Rudskoy, chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said that for the last two months Russian airstrikes have destroyed 32 Daesh oil production facilities.
