Spotlight: Alleged oil trade with IS isolating Turkey

Repeated accusations by Russia of Turkey's involvement in black-market oil trade with the Islamic State (IS), made in an escalating war of words between the two neighbors over a downed warplane, are turning to Ankara's disadvantage.

Turkish analysts see their country being dragged into a deeper diplomatic isolation as Moscow is revving up its verbal attack, while men in the street harbor mixed feelings.

Turkey's alleged purchase of IS oil, a major source of funding for the extremist group that controls vast swaths of territories in Syria and Iraq, was raised right after it shot down on Nov. 24 a Russian Su-24 fighter jet accused of breaching Turkish airspace.

The allegation has been referred to time and again ever since, including in Paris on Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a climate change summit.

"We have recently received additional reports that confirm that oil from ISIL-controlled territories is delivered to the territory of Turkey on an industrial scale," Putin said, using another name of IS.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was attending the summit as well, hit back by offering to resign in case of the allegations proven true and challenging Putin to do the same if he was wrong.

Moscow, however, continued its broadsides against Turkey on Wednesday, in which Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov alleged that "Top political leadership of the country, President Erdogan and his family, are involved in this criminal business."

Iran and Iraq have also joined the fray by echoing Russia's allegation.

For one, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's former national security adviser, told Russia Today that IS sold 800 million U.S. dollars worth of oil in Turkish black market "at less than 50 percent of the international oil price" over the last eight months.

The allegations are hurting Turkey, just as Russia's economic sanctions are doing, analysts told Xinhua.

"We can admit that Turkey's reputation in the international arena has deteriorated," said Zekeriya Kursun, an expert on the Middle East from Marmara University.

Merve Ozdemirkiran, another analyst from the university, urged Turkey to focus more on shuttle-diplomacy, bilateral talks and summits to convince not only Russia but also its Western allies that it has no link with IS.

Ankara should reaffirm its position in the region as a strategic ally of the Western countries, Ozdemirkiran said, adding that "Otherwise isolation would be very dangerous for Turkey's security in general."

In her view, Turkey on its own can neither overcome the security problem along its border nor can deal with a huge influx of refugees.

"Syria is Turkey's neighbor, so the threat is very close and requires global cooperation to fight against it," she remarked.

Analysts also noted that smuggling of all kinds of products including oil and historical artifacts has long been a source of incomes for locals along the border with Iraq and Syria that stretches some 900 kilometres.

"It is not possible to sustain a hundred percent of protection in such a wide area," Kursun said, adding that even building walls from one end to another would not be enough to stem smuggling.

Ozdemirkiran agreed that smuggling is an economic reality in the region.

"The important question is to what extent IS would control and monopolize the smuggling activities in the region," she said. "The real question is there."

According to Kursun, Turkey is being caught between two choices -- "strengthening its border security against traffickers and terrorists and letting the refugees fleeing from war-torn Syria."

In his view, Turkey should do its utmost in terms of border security and ask for direct support from NATO allies when necessary.

"But no one should expect more than it is expected from any other country," he added.

He described the allegations about Turkey's involvement in oil trade with IS as "absurd and unfounded."

"It is hard to admit that the oil smuggling has been adopted by Turkey as an official policy," he said.

He held IS responsible for the deterioration in Ankara's "well-established relations" with both the West and Russia.

People who spoke to Xinhua along Istanbul's Bosporus Strait gave mixed comments about the issue.

"There is something they (Russians) know about the oil trade link with Turkey so that they continue to go after their claim," said an old man who declined to give his name.

"This is politics and Russia is not a country which could be ignored," he continued, adding that no matter how much Turkey denies "there is the possibility that they (the allegations) would be the reality."

"I don't believe it," said another man named Metin Temocin. "Our president made it clear and said, 'I am not that despicable to help a terrorist organization'."

Remzi Kaya, a fisherman, complained of Turkey's foreign policy.

"We are doing miserable," he remarked. Endit