Member-only story
Erdoğan’s War Trade Exposed: Oil for Ukrainian Corpses
A forensic look at how every Russian missile strike is paid for by Turkey
We tell ourselves comforting lies about the nature of alliances. We pretend that membership in NATO represents an unshakeable commitment to shared values and mutual defense. But what happens when one ally funds the very enemy the alliance was formed to deter?
Turkey has become the quiet enabler of Putin’s war machine, simultaneously sheltering under NATO’s security umbrella while funneling billions to fund the Russian missiles raining down on Ukrainian cities. This isn’t a subtle contradiction, but a glaring moral catastrophe in plain sight.
The Money Trail
The numbers speak with clarity. Turkish oil refiner Tupras became one of the biggest importers of Russian crude after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. Russian oil represented a staggering 65% of Turkey’s total oil imports from January to November 2024.
Tupras imported 225,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude in 2024; the highest volume on record and a substantial increase from 178,000 bpd in 2023. Their Russian crude imports nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022, reaching 170,000 bpd.
