Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan praised his country’s growing energy partnership with Azerbaijan during the opening of Baku Energy Week, highlighting infrastructure projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which also delivers roughly 40 percent of Israel’s crude oil imports.
Erdoğan’s message, read out by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar on Monday, framed the Turkey-Azerbaijan energy alliance as a cornerstone of regional and European energy security.
The remarks came as part of a broader celebration of long-standing bilateral projects, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), both of which Erdoğan described as regional achievements.
“We have crowned our cooperation with infrastructure investments like the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum and TANAP pipelines,” Erdoğan said in the written message.
The Turkish president said this cooperation not only benefits Turkey and Azerbaijan but also makes “important contributions to the energy security of the region and Europe.”
Not mentioned in Erdoğan’s message was the fact that one of the projects he hailed — the BTC pipeline — has been a major conduit for Israeli oil imports for over a decade.
Israel reportedly receives approximately 40 percent of its crude oil through the BTC pipeline, which runs from the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
While Erdoğan has positioned himself as a staunch critic of Israeli policy in Gaza and a champion of the Palestinian cause, his government’s continued support for infrastructure that sustains Israel’s energy needs has raised eyebrows among critics.
Opposition figures and pro-Palestinian groups have long pointed to the BTC pipeline’s role in Israel’s energy supply chain as a contradiction of Erdoğan’s rhetorical stance on Palestine.
In his speech Erdoğan emphasized recent advances in energy cooperation, including the inauguration of the Iğdır-Nakhchivan natural gas pipeline in March.
He also pointed to a new memorandum of understanding signed between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Bulgaria to develop a green electricity transmission and trade corridor.
Erdoğan called increased electricity connectivity with Azerbaijan “a project of strategic importance.”
He added that enhancing energy interconnection capacities with Nakhchivan and Georgia would further strengthen the region’s energy infrastructure.
The Turkish president also noted the growing potential for joint projects with Azerbaijan in natural gas, especially with regard to the possible export of Turkmen gas via the Caspian corridor.
“This project will help diversify supply routes and contribute to regional prosperity,” he said.
Erdoğan concluded his message by reaffirming Turkey’s commitment to deepening energy cooperation with Azerbaijan and praised the “eternal brotherhood” between the two countries.
The BTC pipeline, which became operational in 2006, was one of the first major international energy projects linking the Caspian region to global markets without crossing Russian or Iranian territory.
Critics accuse President Erdoğan of hypocrisy, citing reports that crude oil shipments from Turkey to Israel have continued despite an embargo announced in May 2024 over Tel Aviv’s military actions in Gaza.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza following a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that resulted in the death of 1,206 people and the taking of some 250 hostages.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, the Israeli military has killed at least 54,400 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
A report released by Amnesty International on December 5 concludes that Israel’s actions in Gaza qualify as genocide.
In its 2025 report, The State of the World’s Human Rights, Amnesty International described 2024 as the year the world became a passive audience to a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza, as Israel killed thousands of Palestinians and razed entire communities. It warned that the continued arms transfers and political cover provided by powerful states, including the United States and Germany, revealed a global order willing to ignore genocide in plain sight.
The Stop Fueling Genocide campaign reported that at least 10 shipments of Azeri crude oil transported through Turkey’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline reached Israel’s Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company terminal in Ashkelon throughout 2024.
Turkey’s minister of energy had denied shipments to Israel since the embargo but did not address evidence presented by activists.
Critics accuse Ankara of enabling Israel’s military capabilities while using pro-Palestinian rhetoric for domestic political purposes. Criticism has also focused on President Erdoğan and his inner circle’s business ties, including allegations that companies linked to the Erdoğan family engage in trade with Israel.