According to sources, Turkey has not yet stopped the loading of oil tankers from the port of Ceyhan in Turkey to Israel. This information was revealed to Globes for the first time today. Azerbaijan is a major oil supplier to Israel, with oil being transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and loaded onto tankers heading for Haifa. In January, Israel ranked first in Azerbaijan’s oil export targets, receiving 523.5 thousand tons worth approximately 297 million dollars.
Turkey continues to supply oil to Israel due to its desire to maintain a strong relationship with Baku, rather than Jerusalem’s interests. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has good relations with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan is hesitant to take actions that would directly harm Aliyev as Turkey and Azerbaijan have a deep relationship based on the idea of “one nation, two states.”
In addition to supplying oil, Azerbaijan is also a significant military equipment supplier to Israel. This includes the “Haroop” armament and “Laura” missiles as well as the purchase of the Barak MX air defense system from Israel Aerospace Industries for 1.2 billion dollars. Israel’s relationship with Azerbaijan is one of its most stable with a Muslim country dating back to 1992. The two countries have expanded their cooperation in various areas like education and last year, Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Tel Aviv which demonstrated a strengthening of ties between the two nations highlighting their importance.