From Chatham House of all places! Still this is what I call "Stating the Obvious"Last week I was saying to my husband, it doesn't make sense that the nation state of Turkey would shoot down the plane, for the most obvious, simple, plain, common sense reason, Turkey is very reliant or dependent on Russia for it's energy needs!That's a fact!
If oil was a consideration for the Turkish authorities in their decision to shoot down a Russian jet, they would have had good reason to hold fire. Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that the decision by Turkey to shoot down a Russian military aircraft a week ago was 'dictated by the desire to protect the oil supply lines to Turkish territory'
We'll notice that is an out of context quote?
It is doubtful whether Putin genuinely believes his accusation. However, by raising the issue of the possible dealings between Turkish government agencies and ISIS, he has the chance to gain propaganda points in his tussle with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and in some way legitimize recent Russian attacks on targets in parts of Syria that are held by non-ISIS rebel forces backed by Turkey.
With the descent into civil war the trade has evolved, and in 2014 ISIS took over much of the crude production and refining business along the Euphrates river valley. This represented about one-third of Syria's pre-conflict oil capacity, with most of the remainder under Kurdish control.
Last paragraph broken down sentence by sentence
Economic dependence
Turkey relies almost entirely on imports for its total oil consumption of about 720,000 barrels per day.
A large chunk of those imports come from Russia. In 2014 Russia also supplied 27 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Turkey, representing 56 per cent of its total consumption.
Russia was Turkey's largest source of imports, supplying goods worth $25.3 billion, or more than 10 per cent of Turkey's total imports.
In this context, if oil was a consideration for the Turkish authorities in its decision to shoot down a Russian jet, it would have had good reason to hold fire
Considering the reality of Turkish/Russian relations it would appear that Turkey had every reason NOT to shoot down the jetCui Bono? Keeping in mind that Turkey did not participate in the US/EU sanctions regime against Russia
*Israel buys most oil smuggled from ISIS territory - report
*Carving Turkey After a NATO Roasting- Claims vs Reality
*F William Engdahl: Russian Roulette/ Erdogan's Oily Revenge?