Turkey continues oil trade with Israel despite embargo
Turkey continues to trade oil with Israel despite a trade embargo, in what is another stark example of Ankara’s double dealing.
According to MiddleEastEye on December 20th, strong evidence has emerged of Azerbaijani oil being shipped to Israel via Turkish ports.
Researchers, with the help of the Stop Fueling Genocide campaign, have tracked 10 journeys by a single tanker this year, with eight occurring after Turkey announced its trade embargo on Israel in May.
Port logs reveal that tanker was registered as bound for Egypt, but on route “disappeared” in the Eastern Mediterranean for a few days – turning off its tracking signal – before appearing again.
Satellite images confirmed that, during the journeys, the tanker did indeed dock in Ashkelon in Israel, and not Egypt, as official sources suggest.
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The alleged hush selling of Azerbaijani oil to Israel could place Turkey in a precarious situation if the International Court of Justice rules Israel is commuting a genocide.
Turkey could seen as violating its duty to prevent genocide, according to the Energy Embargo for Palestine, especially as this single shipment of oil is thought to be the “tip of the iceberg”.
According to MiddleEastEye, the 1.3 million tonnes per month travel to Israel via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from Baku, Azerbaijan to Ceyhan in Turkey, accounting for 30% of Israel imports.
In September, the MiddleEastEye reported that Turkish goods were travelling through intermediaries like Greece, or logged as destined for Palestine – a loophole which could account for invisible 1.3 million ton oil trade.
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While good passing through his ports is used to fuel Israel’s war in Gaza, on the world stage, Erdogan has been a vocal critic of Tel Aviv’s handling of the conflict, spearheading a UN motion signed by 52 other countries for an arms embargo on Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime.
The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, when appealing to an Islamic summit in Riyadh in November, said in his own words that what is lacking is not determination or moral ground for the Palestinian cause but coercive actions.
Commenting on Erdogan’s stance on Gaza, Sinan Ciddi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said: “While hypocrisy is nothing new in global politics, Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan takes the practice to soaring new heights.
“He is a seasoned hypocrite, causing irreparable reputational damage to himself, and Turkey’s interests.”
MiddleEastEye, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
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