PHOTO: A makeshift oil refinery in Hasakah Province in eastern Syria
Amid Russia’s campaign to portray the Turkish Government’s support of the Islamic State’s oil sales, Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol and I joined Monocle 24’s The Globalist on Tuesday night to discuss the reality of the situation.
Among the points:
1. The Islamic State is moving oil into Turkey, but the operations are through middlemen and smugglers, rather than a system developed with the Turkish Government.
2. The Islamic State is also working with local refining, distribution, and transportation networks to move oil across Syria — both to regime-controlled and opposition-held areas — and into Iraq.
3. There is one Government which is cooperating with ISIS on oil and gas projects — and it is based in Damascus, not Ankara.
4. Both the US and Russia are claiming that their airstrikes have destroyed much of the Islamic State’s oil network. However, damage to ISIS is likely to be limited without ground operations — the biggest casualty of the air attacks have been local truck drivers carrying oil barrels.
Listen from the 6:53 mark:
