Israel’s oil imports have continued to pass through Turkey despite the near collapse of relations between the two countries over the uncompromising military operations mounted by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas cross-border massacre committed three weeks ago.
The Seaviolet, an oil tanker registered in Malta, recently transported 1mn barrels of Azerbaijani crude from Turkey’s Mediterranean oil hub port of Ceyhan to Israel’s Eilat Port, according to a report by Bloomberg. Around 40% of Israel’s annual oil consumption is met by crude that is piped to Ceyhan for onward shipping.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the weekend during a “Great Palestine Rally” in Istanbul accused Israel of being a “war criminal”—though he stands accused of committing war crimes himself given the Turkish military’s bombing of Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria—while on October 25 he declared that Hamas were not terrorists as they were “a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people”.
Israel responded by recalling its diplomatic staff from Turkey for a re-evaluation of relations between Jerusalem and Ankara.
Prior to Erdogan’s sharpest rhetoric against Israel’s actions in Gaza and the backing it has received from the US and other Western nations, Western brands including McDonald’s and Starbucks were already dealing with Turkish consumer backlashes.
Source: Intellinews