Turkish president: ISIL appropriating region's oil

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has used an international gathering on energy as an opportunity to question the motives of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in its ?constant oil operations? in the region.

?What does oil matter if there is nothing human? If there is humanity then water is also valuable. The entire world needs to comprehend that this merciless system cannot continue in the 21st century,? said Erdo?an on May 25, in a speech delivered at the opening of the 6th World Forum on Energy Regulation in Istanbul. 

?At the moment, oil wells are at the hands of Daesh,? he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL. 

?I wonder who Daesh [ISIL] is using these oil wells for. It earns considerable wealth through these oil wells ? It should be seen that the global economy cannot reach welfare without dignifying humanity with justice and without taking countries, peoples, and persons into consideration one by one,? Erdo?an added.

In mid-May, six months after Baghdad triumphantly announced that ISIL militants had retreated from Iraq?s largest refinery, the extremist group has again threatened to overrun the facility.

For weeks, soldiers, police officers and Shiite militiamen have struggled to hold their ground inside the Baiji oil complex during a brutal siege by ISIL. The militant group?s suicide bombers have relentlessly struck the perimeters of the refinery, about 150 miles north of the capital, and pushed deep inside the massive facility.

Last week, US defense officials said Iran has entered the fight to retake a major Iraqi oil refinery from the fundamentalists.

?We are key country in transferring Cyprus energy sources?

Erdo?an also touched upon the Cyprus issue, which is a hot agenda...