Amid growing criticism and protests about the transfer of Azerbaijani oil to Israel from the port of Ceyhan in southern Turkey, the Turkish Energy Ministry described the claims as “completely baseless” and said no such shipments have taken place from the port, in line with a trade ban Turkey imposed on Israel earlier this year, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The Turkish government, an outspoken critic of Israeli actions in Gaza, has been harshly criticized and accused of hypocrisy for allowing the flow of Azerbaijani crude oil to Israel from Ceyhan through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, despite a trade ban Turkey imposed on Israel in May due to “war crimes” it claims Israel is committing in Gaza.
The ministry said in a written statement on Monday that the BTC pipeline, established through an international agreement signed in November 1999 by Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, is operated under a host government agreement, adding that the Turkish state-run Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) manages the Turkey section of the pipeline under an operational agreement with BTC partners.
The binding agreement from 1999 mandates conditions of BTC operation, regardless of regional developments. The terms of the BTC agreement, which obligate Turkey to maintain the oil flow even during periods of conflict, is criticized for prioritizing oil trade over human rights and national sovereignty. BTC is known to supply around 40 percent of Israel’s annual crude oil consumption.
“BOTAŞ International AŞ has no involvement or discretion over the sale of the oil transported through the pipeline,” the statement said, while also claiming that the “accusations” of Turkey’s oil shipments from Ceyhan to Israel are “completely baseless.”
“Companies transporting oil through the BTC pipeline for export to global markets from the Haydar Aliyev Terminal [the name of the port in Ceyhan], have respected Türkiye’s recent decision not to engage in trade with Israel,” the ministry said.
“No deliveries to Israel as the delivery destination have taken place,” the ministry added.
However, investigative journalist Metin Cihan, who has made shocking revelations about Turkey’s ongoing trade with Israel despite its public condemnation of the country, described the ministry’s statement as a hastily made one that will further escalate the debate about Turkey’s trade with Israel and further damage trust in the government about its sincerity.
He said on X that while the ministry statement denies a flow of oil to Israel from the Ceyhan port, it falls short of saying there is no such flow of oil from any of the ports in Turkey.
Based on publicly available sources, Cihan claims that Turkey continues to supply Azerbaijani oil to Israel from other ports in the country, such as the Aliağa Port in the western province of İzmir, where SOCAR, the state-run Azerbaijani oil company, Israel’s number 1 oil supplier, has its own terminal.
SOCAR has been under scrutiny for its involvement in the BTC pipeline, which transports Azerbaijani crude oil through Turkey to the port of Ceyhan. From there, the oil is shipped to various destinations, including Israel, according to allegations.
The İzmit port in northwestern Turkey is also among those where Azerbaijani crude oil is transferred to Israel, according to Cihan.
Cihan said the ministry statement also does not mention that Turkey receives a commission of 80 cents per barrel of oil transferred from the Ceyhan port to other countries, including Israel.
“… Israel’s oil-supplier companies don’t ship oil from us [Turkey], out of respect. [The ministry means to say] the trade ban doesn’t apply to them, they could have done it if they had wanted to, but they didn’t. They expect us to believe that,” said Cihan as he voiced his distrust of the ministry’s statement.
The ministry statement came at a time when there are growing calls for protests against Turkey and Azerbaijan for allowing the flow of oil to Israel as “complicit” in the loss of more than 43,000 lives and massive destruction in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian activists who have been holding such protests for months have frequently faced police force and are sometimes punished with detention.
One of those calls was made on Sunday by climate activist Greta Thunberg, who called for protests at the embassies of Turkey and Azerbaijan around the world over their oil shipments to Israel.
🇵🇸🔊@GretaThunberg is amplifying our INTERNATIONAL CALL OUT: STOP FUELLING GENOCIDE 🔊🇵🇸
Join @filistinicinbin, @EEforpalestine and @palenembargo in their campaign – BP and SOCAR Stop Fuelling Genocide.
🛢They are uniting groups worldwide to take action against those fuelling… pic.twitter.com/4D5q2oXgb9
— Filistin İçin Bin Genç (@filistinicinbin) November 10, 2024
Thunberg said the protests are necessary to call for a stop to the flow of oil through the BTC pipeline that indirectly supplies Israel.
Thunberg said Turkey and Azerbaijan were “complicit” in Israeli violence.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protestors began to gather in İstanbul’s Beyazıt Square on Monday evening, like hundreds of others in different parts of the world, to call on Turkey to stop fueling “genocide” in Palestine by allowing imports of goods to Israel through Turkey.
🚨Today, from Ramallah to Istanbul, from London to Tokyo, we shout from all over the world at the same time: Turkey, Stop Fuelling Genocide🚨
Our updated action points with newly added cities 👇🏾 https://t.co/kGIwI86NgO pic.twitter.com/IQao6fTr6M
— Filistin İçin Bin Genç (@filistinicinbin) November 11, 2024
The protestors, who gathered under a police presence, planned to march to Sultanahmet after reading a statement.