Does Turkey have a duty to turn off the taps on oil supplies to Israel?

When the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was inaugurated in 2006, it was hailed as a crucial commercial bridge that would connect Asia to Europe. 

The 1,768km pipeline, which transports oil from Azerbaijan to Turkey, carried around 30 million tonnes of crude oil in 2023, with 227 million barrels of oil lifted at the port of Ceyhan and loaded onto 313 tankers.

But in recent months, as Israel's war on Gaza has continued to rage, the pipeline has come under fire from pro-Palestine activists who claim it's fuelling Israel's war effort in the enclave, and that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must act to shut it down. 

"Erdogan, turn off the oil valves," said a banner carried by the activist group called "One Thousand Youth for Palestine" outside the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in Istanbul last Friday. 

"End your participation in Israel's genocide."

Read more: Does Turkey have a duty to turn off the taps on oil supplies to Israel?