‘PKK/YPG exploit oil to raise funds in Syria’

ANKARA

The PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, who have occupied the oil and natural gas fields in Syria, are trying to generate income by oil drilling and selling it to the black market through the companies they established, local media has reported.

The terrorist group, which has long occupied oil and natural gas fields near the Euphrates River, is trying to move looted oil from Rumeylan and Deir el-Zour to various nations through a company called Cezire Petrol, according to information obtained from security sources.

Many companies that explore and produce oil in the region also work under this initiative, Turkish media claimed.

The oil trade in Syria is carried out by PKK members who were previously active in Iraq as the former co-chair of the PYD, Şahoz Hasan, claimed to be the head of Cezire Petrol, is in talks with companies for the marketing of Syrian oil, it added.

Hasan, like many PYD/YPG officers in Syria, was found to have operated in Iraq in the past. Joining northern Iraq in 1994, he started to operate under the PYD/YPG with the start of the Syrian war in 2011.

He was then brought in charge of the PYD in 2017 and continued his duty until 2020, after which he worked to raise money for the organization by marketing oil and natural gas in Syria, according to the local media.

Last December, the Syrian regime, in a letter to the United Nations Security Council, accused the U.S. and the PKK/YPG of “stealing the country’s oil and natural gas” without naming the organization.

The regime claimed that its direct losses due to attacks in the oil, natural gas and mining areas amounted to $25.9 billion, while “indirect” losses because of the disruption of production in the area have exceeded $86 billion.

Experts say the PKK/YPG, which operates in Syria thanks to the support of the U.S. military, aims to finance the organization in a bid to become permanent in the region in the long term by trading oil through its companies. The terror group continues to occupy more than 70 percent of the oil resources in the country.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the European Union, has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.