Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan sent a letter to the United Nations (UN) last week claiming that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Echoing statements he also made while speaking at a news conference in Djibouti, Fidan said that it must be "repeated at every opportunity that selling arms to Israel means participating in its genocide."
The Middle East is now on the brink of war because of what Israel is doing, added Ahmet Yidiz, Turkey's permanent ambassador to the UN. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan likewise believes that imposing an arms embargo on Israel will be an "effective solution" to ending the war in Gaza.
According to Erdogan, Israel is trying to fan the "flames of conflict" all across the Middle East region, which he says will "pay the price for this ongoing genocide in Gaza, sooner or later."
(Related: Experts from the UN are calling for targeted sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel for crimes against humanity.)
Why is Turkey still transferring oil from Azerbaijan to Israel?
All this talk out of Turkey about punishing Israel is a bit disingenuous in light of the fact that Turkey continues to allow the transfer of oil from Azerbaijan to Israel via the Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan oil pipeline.
Israel needs all that oil to keep its economy running, including its war economy. Without all that oil, Israel would not have the energy it needs to continue attacking Gaza, Lebanon, and the rest of its targets.
"Erdogan, turn off the valves," reads a banner carried by the activist group "One Thousand Youth for Palestine" at a recent protest outside the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in Istanbul. "End your participation in Israel's genocide."
Turkey has long been involved in Israel's oil trade. Both Erdogan and Fidan collaborated with Israel and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Masoud Barzani, in northern Iraq to deliver Kurdish crude to Israel. In June 2014, they also supported the ISIS invasion of Mosul, allowing the Kurdish Peshmerga to conquer oil-rich Kirkuk and commence oil experts to Israel through Turkey.
Turkish businesses are also continuing to export goods to Israel despite the situation in Gaza. Since there is no formal trade ban, the goods continue to flow, though Turkish exporters are reportedly using Palestinian Authority (PA) customs to make their deliveries.
In short, Turkey appears to be trying to hide its continued trade partnership with Israel by routing goods through Palestine, hence the 423 percent surge in Turkish exports there that occurred during the first eight months of this year.
Last year during the same time period, Turkey sold $77 million worth of goods to Israel. This year, that figure jumped to $403 million. In the month of August alone, Turkish exports to Palestine soared by 1,156 percent, increasing from $10 million in 2023 to $127 million this year.
"It suggests that the trend of using Palestine to maintain trade with Israel has been accelerated," reported Middle East Eye.
Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, accused Turkey of "malice" following the submittal of the letter calling for an arms embargo on Israel.
"What else can be expected from a country whose actions are driven by malice in an attempt to create conflicts with the support of the 'Axis of Evil' countries?" Danon said, "Axis of Evil" referring to the Arab countries that signed the letter.
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