Business ethics

[Turkish presidential spokesman, İbrahim Kalın,] quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as saying to France 24 news channel on Thursday that “had we known it was a Russian plane, we may have acted differently”. “But this does not change the fact that as a NATO member, Turkey has the right to defend its land and airspace against any violations. Turkish airspace is also NATO airspace”, Kalin wrote. Erdoğan’s spokesman also touched on claims that Turkey supports Daesh and buys oil from the extremist group, calling the accusations “part of a smear campaign that has no foundation”. “Those who have made such claims have yet to produce a single piece of concrete evidence. Instead, they narrate anecdotal stories with references to unnamed persons and unspecified locations”. “But what we know for sure is the fact that both the U.S. and the EU have sanctioned key people for buying oil from Daesh on behalf of the [Bashar] Assad regime”. “They include Syrian businessman George Haswani, Mudalal Khuri, a Syrian banker, and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a wealthy Russian businessman and the president of the World Chess Federation”, he said.

• Hale Türkeş, Erdoğan spokesman says Turkey-Russia ties will survive, Anadolu Agency, November 28, 2015

“Checkmate”
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