diff --git a/p2-maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/eclipse/tycho/p2maven/transport/RemoteArtifactRepositoryManagerAgentFactory.java b/p2-maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/eclipse/tycho/p2maven/transport/RemoteArtifactRepositoryManagerAgentFactory.java
index c936a1669c..0f638c3ea4 100644
--- a/p2-maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/eclipse/tycho/p2maven/transport/RemoteArtifactRepositoryManagerAgentFactory.java
+++ b/p2-maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/eclipse/tycho/p2maven/transport/RemoteArtifactRepositoryManagerAgentFactory.java
@@ -20,11 +20,12 @@
 import org.eclipse.equinox.p2.core.spi.IAgentServiceFactory;
 import org.eclipse.equinox.p2.repository.artifact.IArtifactRepositoryManager;
 import org.eclipse.tycho.IRepositoryIdManager;
+import org.eclipse.tycho.version.TychoVersion;
 
 @Component(role = IAgentServiceFactory.class, hint = "org.eclipse.equinox.p2.repository.artifact.IArtifactRepositoryManager")
 public class RemoteArtifactRepositoryManagerAgentFactory implements IAgentServiceFactory {
 
-    @Requirement
+	@Requirement
 	Logger logger;
 
 	@Requirement
@@ -33,26 +34,25 @@ public class RemoteArtifactRepositoryManagerAgentFactory implements IAgentServic
 	@Requirement
 	MavenAuthenticator authenticator;
 
-    @Override
-    public Object createService(IProvisioningAgent agent) {
-        IArtifactRepositoryManager plainRepoManager = (IArtifactRepositoryManager) new ArtifactRepositoryComponent()
-                .createService(agent);
-        if (getDisableP2MirrorsConfiguration()) {
-            plainRepoManager = new P2MirrorDisablingArtifactRepositoryManager(plainRepoManager,
-					logger);
-        }
+	@Override
+	public Object createService(IProvisioningAgent agent) {
+		IArtifactRepositoryManager plainRepoManager = (IArtifactRepositoryManager) new ArtifactRepositoryComponent()
+				.createService(agent);
+		if (getDisableP2MirrorsConfiguration()) {
+			plainRepoManager = new P2MirrorDisablingArtifactRepositoryManager(plainRepoManager, logger);
+		}
 		return new RemoteArtifactRepositoryManager(plainRepoManager, repositoryIdManager, authenticator);
-    }
+	}
 
-    private boolean getDisableP2MirrorsConfiguration() {
-        String key = "tycho.disableP2Mirrors";
+	private boolean getDisableP2MirrorsConfiguration() {
+		String key = "tycho.disableP2Mirrors";
 		String value = System.getProperty(key);
-
-        boolean disableP2Mirrors = Boolean.parseBoolean(value);
-		if (disableP2Mirrors && logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
-            String message = key + "=" + value + " -> ignoring mirrors specified in p2 artifact repositories";
-			logger.debug(message);
-        }
-        return disableP2Mirrors;
-    }
+		if (value != null) {
+			logger.info("Using " + key
+					+ " to disable P2 mirrors is deprecated, use the property eclipse.p2.mirrors instead, see https://tycho.eclipseprojects.io/doc/"
+					+ TychoVersion.getTychoVersion() + "/SystemProperties.html for details.");
+			return Boolean.parseBoolean(value);
+		}
+		return false;
+	}
 }
diff --git a/src/site/markdown/SystemProperties.md b/src/site/markdown/SystemProperties.md
index 4890aed2da..7ba6c87471 100644
--- a/src/site/markdown/SystemProperties.md
+++ b/src/site/markdown/SystemProperties.md
@@ -26,3 +26,12 @@ Name | Value | Default | Documentation
 --- | --- | ---
 tycho.comparator.showDiff | true / false | false | If set to true if text-like files show a unified diff of possible differences in files
 tycho.comparator.threshold | bytes | 5242880 (~5MB) | gives the number of bytes for content to be compared semantically, larger files will only be compared byte-by-byte
+
+### P2
+
+These properties control the behaviour of P2 used by Tycho
+
+Name | Value | Default | Documentation
+--- | --- | ---
+eclipse.p2.mirrors | true / false | true | Each p2 site can define a list of artifact repository mirrors, this controls if P2 mirrors should be used. This is independent from configuring mirrors in the maven configuration to be used by Tycho!
+
diff --git a/tycho-its/src/test/java/org/eclipse/tycho/test/p2Repository/P2RepositoryPropertiesTest.java b/tycho-its/src/test/java/org/eclipse/tycho/test/p2Repository/P2RepositoryPropertiesTest.java
index 0a4714c5d8..56c41f2147 100644
--- a/tycho-its/src/test/java/org/eclipse/tycho/test/p2Repository/P2RepositoryPropertiesTest.java
+++ b/tycho-its/src/test/java/org/eclipse/tycho/test/p2Repository/P2RepositoryPropertiesTest.java
@@ -78,4 +78,10 @@ public void testPropertyPropagation() throws Exception {
 		assertTrue(properties.containsKey(TychoConstants.PROP_PGP_SIGNATURES)
 				&& !properties.get(TychoConstants.PROP_PGP_SIGNATURES).isBlank());
 	}
+
+	@Override
+	protected boolean isDisableMirrors() {
+		// we want to test mirror properties...
+		return false;
+	}
 }
diff --git a/tycho-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/eclipse/tycho/test/AbstractTychoIntegrationTest.java b/tycho-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/eclipse/tycho/test/AbstractTychoIntegrationTest.java
index 10e53fb2e4..1862059973 100644
--- a/tycho-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/eclipse/tycho/test/AbstractTychoIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/tycho-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/eclipse/tycho/test/AbstractTychoIntegrationTest.java
@@ -90,6 +90,9 @@ protected Verifier getVerifier(String test, boolean setTargetPlatform, File user
 
         Verifier verifier = new Verifier(testDir.getAbsolutePath());
         verifier.setForkJvm(isForked());
+        if (isDisableMirrors()) {
+            verifier.setSystemProperty("eclipse.p2.mirrors", "false");
+        }
         String debug = System.getProperty("tycho.mvnDebug");
         if (debug != null) {
             System.out.println("Preparing to execute Maven in debug mode");
@@ -145,6 +148,14 @@ protected Verifier getVerifier(String test, boolean setTargetPlatform, File user
         return verifier;
 
     }
+    
+    /**
+     * can be overridden by subclass to explicitly enable mirrors, by default they are disabled.
+     * 
+     */
+    protected boolean isDisableMirrors() {
+        return true;
+    }
 
     protected boolean isForked() {
         return true;