As delegates gathered to negotiate climate finance and a transition away from fossil fuels at this year’s Cop29 in Azerbaijan, Palestinian and climate groups are fighting to ensure Palestine is on the agenda.

In particular, they closely monitored Azerbaijan and Turkey’s role in providing Israel with crude oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

The pipeline carries Azerbaijani crude oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, supplying Israel with 28 percent of its oil imports at a time when Israel is waging a war against Gaza and Lebanon.

The pipeline is majority owned by BP, with Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar the second largest shareholder.

Three activist groups – Energy Embargo for Palestine, Filistin Bin Genc (“1,000 Youth for Palestine”) and Global Energy Embargo for Palestine – called on people to demonstrate in front of the embassies of Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well as in front of the offices of BP and Socar, during the Cop summit

“We identify several pressure points. The first is the Turkish state, which represents the final stage of the BTC pipeline where oil is shipped to Israel. » the groups said.

And their call was heard: on November 11, demonstrations took place in front of the Turkish and Azerbaijani embassies in London, Zurich, TokyoBerlin, Dublin and Zagrebas well as others in Palestine, Jordan and Turkey itself.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg published a statement support the demonstrations and denounce “the complicity of Turkey and Azerbaijan in the violence against Gaza”.

At Cop29 in Baku, the Climate Justice Coalition, a coalition of unions, NGOs and grassroots campaigns, held a rally and hosted panels linking the issues of climate change and Israel’s war on Gaza.

Thousand Youth for Palestine, a Turkish group, has led the scrutiny of Turkey.

“Turkey is not just a bystander, it is also a significant obstacle to Palestinian liberation. Not just fueling the genocide by supplying oil, but also essential goods like steel, textiles and chemicals,” the group’s Seyma Altundal told MEE.

Performative solidarity

Relations between Turkey and Israel have collapsed since the start of the Gaza war, particularly after local elections in Turkey in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was partly punished for its weak response to conflict.

Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was severing all ties with Israel. Israeli President Isaac Herzog didn’t even show up in Baku for the Cop because Turkey refused to let him use its airspace.

“It was very obvious to us that (Turkey’s) performative solidarity was not going to evolve into real, concrete solidarity with Palestine”

– Bala Ersay, A Thousand Young People for Palestine

However, activists from the Thousand Youth for Palestine, formed in January, believe that Turkey has not put enough pressure on Israel. The group targeted Turkish ports and offices of Socar and BP to protest ongoing oil shipments from Ceyhan despite Ankara’s agreement. taxation of a trade embargo with Israel in May.

“We realized that Turkey was trying to present itself as the defender of Palestine… but it was very obvious to us that this performative solidarity was not going to evolve into real, concrete solidarity with Palestine,” Bala said Ersay, one of the group members. members, told MEE.

Earlier this month, the Turkish Energy Ministry denied that all tankers bound for Israel had left the port of Ceyhan since Ankara imposed its trade embargo.

He added that Botas, the Turkish state oil company, which operates the Turkish section of the pipeline under an agreement, has “no authority or involvement in the purchase or sale of oil” and that “companies transporting oil through the BTC pipeline for export to global markets” at the Haydar Aliyev terminal have respected Turkey’s recent decision not to engage in trade with Israel.

However, Lorne Stockman, the author of a report The advocacy group Oil Change International, which tracked oil shipments to Israel through July, said its data sources showed several shipments from Ceyhan since May.

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“Our data does not show shipments after April 28, but we only tracked through July 15 for the report,” Stockman told MEE.

“We contacted our data sources and they saw shipments recorded as coming from the BTC terminus, which is Ceyhan, arriving in Ashkelon in September, October and November.”

A Turkish official previously told MEE that BP sells oil to intermediary companies, over which Ankara cannot control, and that the tankers recover the oil “without declaring their final destination”.

“There is no real reason to assume that these shipments have ceased. Azerbaijan has very strong relations with Israel, it is the largest source of oil for Israel according to our data,” Stockman said.

Azerbaijan’s oil exports to Israel increased quadruple since the beginning of this year, increasing from 523,554 tonnes in January to 2,372,248 tonnes in September.

Give up control

Under a 2000 host government agreement, Turkey is unconditionally obligated to ensure the free flow of oil through the pipeline and would have to pay substantial monetary compensation if Ankara fails to comply with the agreement.

“Turkey may not have much control,” Stockman told MEE. “For the BTC pipeline to continue in the first place, some control may have been ceded. The countries hosting the pipeline may have guaranteed that they would not interfere with it.

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“We have had similar questions regarding some African exporters, because some of the African countries that are regular suppliers to Israel have made public statements condemning the occupation and Israel’s actions, but their oil continues to flow.

“We think this may be because the agreements these governments have made with the companies producing their oil require them not to intervene.”

However, some have argued that Ankara could stop the flow of oil through Ceyhan by relying on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which Turkey joined in August.

According to Turkish lawyer Yusuf Akseker, although Turkey could be sued by BP or Socar for breaching its agreement, the courts would have to wait for the outcome of the ICJ case.

“Even if the courts do not rule on the crime of genocide, they will determine a crime against humanity and Turkey will therefore win any possible trial,” he said.

If the ICJ determines that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, countries like Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan could be seen as violating their duty to prevent genocide by providing fuel and raw materials to Israel.

This is not a separate problem

In Baku, the Coalition for Climate Justice is helping to raise the visibility of the Palestinian cause during Cop29.

“We came here with two priorities,” Asad Rehman, director of the humanitarian group War on Want and a member of the Climate Justice Coalition, told MEE.

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“One of them has been our call for rich countries to repay the public finances necessary for debt repairs and climate debt, and the second is to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and offer the end of the genocide.”

But, as in previous COP conferences, calls for Palestinian solidarity are heavily censored.

According to Rehman, during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on November 11, activists were silenced and banned from displaying images of Palestinian activists killed by Israel.

“The only thing we have been able to do so far is completely silent protests with a fixed number of people,” Rehman said. “And it took a lot of organization.”

Azerbaijan, Israel’s close ally, has intensified its crackdown on civil society since Baku was announced as host of the conference last December. Organizing protests outside the conference and engaging with Azerbaijani activists is simply not possible.

According to Azerbaijani human rights defenders, approximately 300 people remain in detention for political reasons, including climate defender Anar Mammadli, in pre-trial detention since April 30.