Turkey Maintains Large Scale Oil Shipments to Israel Despite Claiming to Embargo: Details on Ankara’s Role in Bolstering Tel Aviv

<p >A growing body of research has highlighted that Turkey has continued to make major oil shipments to Israel, despite claims by the Turkish government to have imposed an oil embargo on the country. Researchers from the Stop Fuelling Genocide campaign, named on the basis of allegations of an Israeli genocide in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, compiled shipping data and satellite imagery. Their findings indicated that crude oil was being shipped directly from Turkey's Ceyhan Port to a pipeline near Ashkelon in Israel. Imports along this route accounted for approximately 30 percent of all Israeli oil imports. Turkish vessels shipping crude oil to Israel have notably turned off their transponders, only to reappear days later. They can nevertheless be observed making their deliveries using satellite imagery. Researchers at Stop Fuelling Genocide observed that the shipments were “only the tip of the iceberg in relation to ongoing trade between Israel and Turkey.” They highlighted that fuel sent to Israel was key to sustaining the country’s ongoing war efforts.</p><p ><img src=" title="Oil Tankers at Ceyhan Port, Turkey"></p><p >The Islamist government in Turkey has notably sought to position itself as a leader of the Islamic world, investing considerably in cultivating soft power among Muslim majority states globally from Southeast Asia to West Africa. With the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict being a highly sensitive issue in many Muslim majority countries, Ankara has benefitted from positioning itself as a leading critic of Israeli policies, with its leadership often making particularly outspoken statements. Turkey’s policies have nevertheless closely reflected its status as a NATO member and a strategic partner of Israel, with the countries’ close defence partnership spanning several decades, an example being the extensive refurbishment and modernisation Israel provided to the Turkish F-4E fighter fleet. The two have been widely reported to closely coordinate their operations against Syria and the Lebanese paramilitary Hezbollah, which have been pressed between two fronts in their conflicts with the two states. At a time when Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah is ongoing, it is notable that Turkey is the only other state actor to have also attacked Hezbollah positions, and that it shared intelligence on these engagements with Israel, while continuing to provide tremendous support to jihadist militias in Syria which target Hezbollah. These militias in turn have received close air support <a href=" target="_blank">from both Turkish</a> and <a href=" target="_blank">from Israeli</a> fighter planes when engaging Syrian forces. Other than the United States, Turkish contributions have been by far the most significant in facilitating Israel’s ongoing war efforts against their common adversaries. </p><p ><img src=" title="Explosion as Turkey Shot Down Syrian Mi-17 Helicopter Over Syria`s Idlib Governate in 2020"></p><p >Reports regarding Turkish oil exports to Israel notably follow a <a href=" target="_blank" >missile strike in mid-November</a> by the Yemeni Ansurullah Coalition on the Turkish cargo ship Anadolu S. The large 183-meter-long vessel was operating in the Red Sea and was targeted to prevent it from supplying cargo to Israel. The Ansurullah Coalition has consistently targeted Western countries’ shipping in order to impose a partial naval blockade of Israel, with such operations having been initiated in October 2023 in response to Israel’s alleged genocide of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. The Yemeni group is a close strategic partner of Syria and Hezbollah, and an adversary of Western Bloc, Turkish and Israeli interests. Turkey’s role in serving as a major secret conduit of oil to Israel is notably far from new, and while currently much of the oil shipped from the country is of Azerbaijani origin, the country previously supplied Iraqi and Syrian oil to Israel after purchasing it from Islamist paramilitary groups that received sponsorship from the Turkish government. Turkey has <a href=" target="_blank">continued to appropriate</a> oil from fields in Northwestern Syria, which remains under its military control.</p>