Turkey’s energy transition accelerates under geopolitical pressure: systemic risks, colonial legacies, and the limits of ‘green’ sovereignty
Original framing: “Oil and shipping disruption adds urgency to Turkey’s renewable energy plans” — Middle East Eye
Turkey’s energy vulnerabilities trace back to the Ottoman Empire’s reliance on the Silk Road for energy resources, which was later replaced by Soviet gas pipelines after WWII. The 1973 oil crisis forced Turkey to diversify its energy sources, but its dependence on Russian gas (via the Blue Stream pipeline) and Middle Eastern oil remains structural. The current push for renewables is less about sustainability and more about reducing this historical geopolitical leverage. Without addressing these legacy dependencies, Turkey’s energy transition risks repeating the same extractivist patterns under a ‘green’ guise.
Turkey’s renewable energy transition is not merely a reactive response to oil disruptions but a contested terrain where historical legacies, geopolitical leverage, and state power collide.
The framing of this shift as a pragmatic ‘solution’ obscures how it replicates the same extractivist and centralising patterns of Turkey’s Ottoman and Republican pasts, while ignoring the voices of marginalised communities who see renewables as another tool of state control. The trickster perspective reveals the absurdity of a state that has spent decades building fossil fuel infrastructure only to now pivot to renewables without addressing systemic inequality or reintegrating Indigenous knowledge. Cross-cultural models like Morocco’s Agadir Plan offer a path forward, but Turkey’s current trajectory risks repeating the same mistakes under a ‘green’ guise. To achieve true energy sovereignty, Turkey must adopt decentralised, community-led models, phase out fossil fuel subsidies, and reintegrate traditional energy practices—all while ensuring that the transition is just and inclusive for all citizens.