The Origins and Traditions of May Day

I wrote the Origins and Traditions of Mayday in 1997. Yes way back then, it was one of my first web postings. It was used to launch MayDay on the Web and the Edmonton May Week celebrations that have continued since.

Here it is again and the original web page is here.

An Australian labour historian used it as the basis for his article on May Day which expands on my points.

THE ORIGINS AND TRADITIONS OF MAYDAY

By Eugene W. Plawiuk


The international working class holiday; Mayday,
originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day
celebrating the first spring planting. The ancient
Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the
day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun.

The Saxons began their May day celebrations on the eve
of May, April 30. It was an evening of games and
feasting celebrating the end of winter and the return
of the sun and fertility of the soil. Torch bearing
peasants and villager would wind their way up paths to
the top of tall hills or mountain crags and then
ignite wooden wheels which they would roll down into
the fields

The May eve celebrations were eventually outlawed by
the Catholic church, but were still celebrated by
peasants until the late 1700's. While good church
going folk would shy away from joining in the
celebrations, those less afraid of papal authority
would don animal masks and various costumes, not
unlike our modern Halloween. The revelers, lead by the
Goddess of the Hunt; Diana (sometimes played by a
pagan-priest in women's clothing) and the Horned God;
Herne, would travel up the hill shouting, chanting and
singing, while blowing hunting horns. This night
became known in Europe as Walpurgisnacht, or night of
the witches

The Celtic tradition of Mayday in the British isles
continued to be celebrated through-out the middle ages
by rural and village folk. Here the traditions were
similar with a goddess and god of the hunt.

As European peasants moved away from hunting gathering
societies their gods and goddesses changed to reflect
a more agrarian society. Thus Diana and Herne came to
be seen by medieval villagers as fertility deities of
the crops and fields. Diana became the Queen of the
May and Herne became Robin Goodfellow (a predecessor
of Robin Hood) or the Green Man.

The Queen of the May reflected the life of the fields
and Robin reflected the hunting traditions of the
woods. The rites of mayday were part and parcel of
pagan celebrations of the seasons. Many of these pagan
rites were later absorbed by the Christian church in
order to win over converts from the 'Old Religion'.

Mayday celebrations in Europe varied according to
locality, however they were immensely popular with
artisans and villagers until the 19th Century. The
Christian church could not eliminate many of the
traditional feast and holy days of the Old Religion so
they were transformed into Saint days.

During the middle ages the various trade guilds
celebrated feast days for the patron saints of their
craft. The shoemakers guild honored St. Crispin, the
tailors guild celebrated Adam and Eve. As late as the
18th century various trade societies and early
craft-unions would enter floats in local parades still
depicting Adam and Eve being clothed by the Tailors
and St. Crispin blessing the shoemaker.

The two most popular feast days for Medieval craft
guilds were the Feast of St. John, or the Summer
Solstice and Mayday. Mayday was a raucous and fun
time, electing a queen of the May from the eligible
young women of the village, to rule the crops until
harbest. Our tradition of beauty pagents may have
evolved , albeit in a very bastardized form, from the
May Queen.

Besides the selection of the May Queen was the raising
of the phallic Maypole, around which the young single
men and women of the village would dance holding on to
the ribbons until they became entwined, with their (
hoped for) new love.

And of course there was Robin Goodfellow, or the Green
Man who was the Lord of Misrule for this day. Mayday
was a celebration of the common people, and Robin
would be the King/Priest/Fool for a day. Priests and
Lords were the butt of many jokes, and the Green Man
and his supporters; mummers would make jokes and poke
fun of the local authorities. This tradition of satire
is still conducted today in Newfoundland, with the
Christmas Mummery.

The church and state did not take kindly to these
celebrations, especially during times of popular
rebellion. Mayday and the Maypole were outlawed in the
1600's. Yet the tradition still carried on in many
rural areas of England. The trade societies still
celebrated Mayday until the 18th Century.

As trade societies evolved from guilds, to friendly
societies and eventually into unions, the craft
traditions remained strong into the early 19th
century. In North America Dominion Day celebrations in
Canada and July 4th celebrations in the United States
would be celebrated by tradesmen still decorating
floats depicting their ancient saints such as St.
Crispin.


Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class
holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour
day in 1886. May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the
United States and Canada for an eight hour day called
by the Knights of Labour. In Chicago police attacked
striking workers killing six.
The next day at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to
protest the police brutality a bomb exploded in the
middle of a crowd of police killing eight of them. The
police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists
claiming they threw the bombs. To this day the subject
is still one of controversy. The question remains
whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the
police or whether one of the police's own agent
provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from
charging workers.

In what was to become one of the most infamous show
trials in America in the 19th century, but certainly
not to be the last of such trials against radical
workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist
workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as
being the actual bomb throwers. Whether the anarchist
workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant. They
were agitators, fomenting revolution and stirring up
the working class, and they had to be taught a lesson.


Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph
Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of
Illinois.

In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's
Association (the First International) declared May 1st
an international working class holiday in
commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag
became the symbol of the blood of working class
martyrs in their battle for workers rights.

Mayday, which had been banned for being a holiday of
the common people, had been reclaimed once again for
the common people.


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
plawiuk, origins, traditions, Mayday
Beltane, pagan, paganism, Green-Man, Diana

 The Origins and Traditions of May Day

I wrote the Origins and Traditions of Mayday in 1997. Yes way back then, it was one of my first web postings. It was used to launch MayDay on the Web and the Edmonton May Week celebrations that have continued since.

Here it is again and the original web page is here.

An Australian labour historian used it as the basis for his article on May Day which expands on my points.

THE ORIGINS AND TRADITIONS OF MAYDAY

By Eugene W. Plawiuk

The international working class holiday; Mayday,
originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day
celebrating the first spring planting. The ancient
Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the
day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun.

The Saxons began their May day celebrations on the eve
of May, April 30. It was an evening of games and
feasting celebrating the end of winter and the return
of the sun and fertility of the soil. Torch bearing
peasants and villager would wind their way up paths to
the top of tall hills or mountain crags and then
ignite wooden wheels which they would roll down into
the fields

The May eve celebrations were eventually outlawed by
the Catholic church, but were still celebrated by
peasants until the late 1700's. While good church
going folk would shy away from joining in the
celebrations, those less afraid of papal authority
would don animal masks and various costumes, not
unlike our modern Halloween. The revelers, lead by the
Goddess of the Hunt; Diana (sometimes played by a
pagan-priest in women's clothing) and the Horned God;
Herne, would travel up the hill shouting, chanting and
singing, while blowing hunting horns. This night
became known in Europe as Walpurgisnacht, or night of
the witches

The Celtic tradition of Mayday in the British isles
continued to be celebrated through-out the middle ages
by rural and village folk. Here the traditions were
similar with a goddess and god of the hunt.

As European peasants moved away from hunting gathering
societies their gods and goddesses changed to reflect
a more agrarian society. Thus Diana and Herne came to
be seen by medieval villagers as fertility deities of
the crops and fields. Diana became the Queen of the
May and Herne became Robin Goodfellow (a predecessor
of Robin Hood) or the Green Man.

The Queen of the May reflected the life of the fields
and Robin reflected the hunting traditions of the
woods. The rites of mayday were part and parcel of
pagan celebrations of the seasons. Many of these pagan
rites were later absorbed by the Christian church in
order to win over converts from the 'Old Religion'.

Mayday celebrations in Europe varied according to
locality, however they were immensely popular with
artisans and villagers until the 19th Century. The
Christian church could not eliminate many of the
traditional feast and holy days of the Old Religion so
they were transformed into Saint days.

During the middle ages the various trade guilds
celebrated feast days for the patron saints of their
craft. The shoemakers guild honored St. Crispin, the
tailors guild celebrated Adam and Eve. As late as the
18th century various trade societies and early
craft-unions would enter floats in local parades still
depicting Adam and Eve being clothed by the Tailors
and St. Crispin blessing the shoemaker.

The two most popular feast days for Medieval craft
guilds were the Feast of St. John, or the Summer
Solstice and Mayday. Mayday was a raucous and fun
time, electing a queen of the May from the eligible
young women of the village, to rule the crops until
harbest. Our tradition of beauty pagents may have
evolved , albeit in a very bastardized form, from the
May Queen.

Besides the selection of the May Queen was the raising
of the phallic Maypole, around which the young single
men and women of the village would dance holding on to
the ribbons until they became entwined, with their (
hoped for) new love.

And of course there was Robin Goodfellow, or the Green
Man who was the Lord of Misrule for this day. Mayday
was a celebration of the common people, and Robin
would be the King/Priest/Fool for a day. Priests and
Lords were the butt of many jokes, and the Green Man
and his supporters; mummers would make jokes and poke
fun of the local authorities. This tradition of satire
is still conducted today in Newfoundland, with the
Christmas Mummery.

The church and state did not take kindly to these
celebrations, especially during times of popular
rebellion. Mayday and the Maypole were outlawed in the
1600's. Yet the tradition still carried on in many
rural areas of England. The trade societies still
celebrated Mayday until the 18th Century.

As trade societies evolved from guilds, to friendly
societies and eventually into unions, the craft
traditions remained strong into the early 19th
century. In North America Dominion Day celebrations in
Canada and July 4th celebrations in the United States
would be celebrated by tradesmen still decorating
floats depicting their ancient saints such as St.
Crispin.

Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class
holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour
day in 1886. May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the
United States and Canada for an eight hour day called
by the Knights of Labour. In Chicago police attacked
striking workers killing six.
The next day at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to
protest the police brutality a bomb exploded in the
middle of a crowd of police killing eight of them. The
police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists
claiming they threw the bombs. To this day the subject
is still one of controversy. The question remains
whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the
police or whether one of the police's own agent
provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from
charging workers.

In what was to become one of the most infamous show
trials in America in the 19th century, but certainly
not to be the last of such trials against radical
workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist
workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as
being the actual bomb throwers. Whether the anarchist
workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant. They
were agitators, fomenting revolution and stirring up
the working class, and they had to be taught a lesson.

Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph
Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of
Illinois.

In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's
Association (the First International) declared May 1st
an international working class holiday in
commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag
became the symbol of the blood of working class
martyrs in their battle for workers rights.

Mayday, which had been banned for being a holiday of
the common people, had been reclaimed once again for
the common people.

 

Monday, May 01, 2006

The Origins and Traditions of May Day

Monday, May 01, 2006

I wrote the Origins and Traditions of Mayday in 1997. Yes way back then, it was one of my first web postings. It was used to launch MayDay on the Web and the Edmonton May Week celebrations that have continued since.

Here it is again and the original web page is here.

An Australian labour historian used it as the basis for his article on May Day which expands on my points.

THE ORIGINS AND TRADITIONS OF MAYDAY

By Eugene W. Plawiuk

The international working class holiday; Mayday,
originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day
celebrating the first spring planting. The ancient
Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the
day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun.

The Saxons began their May day celebrations on the eve
of May, April 30. It was an evening of games and
feasting celebrating the end of winter and the return
of the sun and fertility of the soil. Torch bearing
peasants and villager would wind their way up paths to
the top of tall hills or mountain crags and then
ignite wooden wheels which they would roll down into
the fields

The May eve celebrations were eventually outlawed by
the Catholic church, but were still celebrated by
peasants until the late 1700's. While good church
going folk would shy away from joining in the
celebrations, those less afraid of papal authority
would don animal masks and various costumes, not
unlike our modern Halloween. The revelers, lead by the
Goddess of the Hunt; Diana (sometimes played by a
pagan-priest in women's clothing) and the Horned God;
Herne, would travel up the hill shouting, chanting and
singing, while blowing hunting horns. This night
became known in Europe as Walpurgisnacht, or night of
the witches

The Celtic tradition of Mayday in the British isles
continued to be celebrated through-out the middle ages
by rural and village folk. Here the traditions were
similar with a goddess and god of the hunt.

As European peasants moved away from hunting gathering
societies their gods and goddesses changed to reflect
a more agrarian society. Thus Diana and Herne came to
be seen by medieval villagers as fertility deities of
the crops and fields. Diana became the Queen of the
May and Herne became Robin Goodfellow (a predecessor
of Robin Hood) or the Green Man.

The Queen of the May reflected the life of the fields
and Robin reflected the hunting traditions of the
woods. The rites of mayday were part and parcel of
pagan celebrations of the seasons. Many of these pagan
rites were later absorbed by the Christian church in
order to win over converts from the 'Old Religion'.

Mayday celebrations in Europe varied according to
locality, however they were immensely popular with
artisans and villagers until the 19th Century. The
Christian church could not eliminate many of the
traditional feast and holy days of the Old Religion so
they were transformed into Saint days.

During the middle ages the various trade guilds
celebrated feast days for the patron saints of their
craft. The shoemakers guild honored St. Crispin, the
tailors guild celebrated Adam and Eve. As late as the
18th century various trade societies and early
craft-unions would enter floats in local parades still
depicting Adam and Eve being clothed by the Tailors
and St. Crispin blessing the shoemaker.

The two most popular feast days for Medieval craft
guilds were the Feast of St. John, or the Summer
Solstice and Mayday. Mayday was a raucous and fun
time, electing a queen of the May from the eligible
young women of the village, to rule the crops until
harbest. Our tradition of beauty pagents may have
evolved , albeit in a very bastardized form, from the
May Queen.

Besides the selection of the May Queen was the raising
of the phallic Maypole, around which the young single
men and women of the village would dance holding on to
the ribbons until they became entwined, with their (
hoped for) new love.

And of course there was Robin Goodfellow, or the Green
Man who was the Lord of Misrule for this day. Mayday
was a celebration of the common people, and Robin
would be the King/Priest/Fool for a day. Priests and
Lords were the butt of many jokes, and the Green Man
and his supporters; mummers would make jokes and poke
fun of the local authorities. This tradition of satire
is still conducted today in Newfoundland, with the
Christmas Mummery.

The church and state did not take kindly to these
celebrations, especially during times of popular
rebellion. Mayday and the Maypole were outlawed in the
1600's. Yet the tradition still carried on in many
rural areas of England. The trade societies still
celebrated Mayday until the 18th Century.

As trade societies evolved from guilds, to friendly
societies and eventually into unions, the craft
traditions remained strong into the early 19th
century. In North America Dominion Day celebrations in
Canada and July 4th celebrations in the United States
would be celebrated by tradesmen still decorating
floats depicting their ancient saints such as St.
Crispin.

Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class
holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour
day in 1886. May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the
United States and Canada for an eight hour day called
by the Knights of Labour. In Chicago police attacked
striking workers killing six.
The next day at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to
protest the police brutality a bomb exploded in the
middle of a crowd of police killing eight of them. The
police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists
claiming they threw the bombs. To this day the subject
is still one of controversy. The question remains
whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the
police or whether one of the police's own agent
provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from
charging workers.

In what was to become one of the most infamous show
trials in America in the 19th century, but certainly
not to be the last of such trials against radical
workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist
workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as
being the actual bomb throwers. Whether the anarchist
workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant. They
were agitators, fomenting revolution and stirring up
the working class, and they had to be taught a lesson.

Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph
Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of
Illinois.

In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's
Association (the First International) declared May 1st
an international working class holiday in
commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag
became the symbol of the blood of working class
martyrs in their battle for workers rights.

Mayday, which had been banned for being a holiday of
the common people, had been reclaimed once again for
the common people.

Disabled Boxship Being Towed to Sheltered Bay After Repeated Problems

Disabled containership Shiling is being towed back to New Zealand during her fourth failure in a year (Carl Babe photo courtesy Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter)

PUBLISHED MAY 12, 2023 12:55 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

A disabled Singapore register containership, Shiling, is under tow heading back to New Zealand after earlier in the day issuing a Mayday distress call. Maritime New Zealand is reporting that the situation is under control and they have released the rescue teams that had been on standby as well as ending the Mayday, but the investigation into the ongoing problems with the Shiling is just beginning.

The 66,500 dwt containership (5,028 TEU) had just been released from a 24-day detention in Wellington, New Zealand after its previous power failure. The ship has a history of failures over the past year which have raised concerns among both the maritime services and elected officials that the vessel’s problems could lead to a larger incident causing harm to the crew or an environmental disaster in New Zealand. After last month’s problem, the Wellington Harbourmaster called into question the ship’s reliability.

The Harbourmaster lifted the detention order on Wednesday, May 10 after testing and with the understanding that the containership would proceed to Singapore for additional repairs. This came after the Shiling blacked out and lost steering in Wellington harbor on April 15 causing it to draft across a sandbar and dangerously close to grounding. It also had a brief engine stoppage in February in Wellington Harbor and a power failure in July 2022.

After departing Wellington, the ship reported rough seas near the Cook Strait and as it was heading into the Tasman Sea. Waves were reported up to 26 feet with the news media saying the Shiling was taking shelter to wait out the weather. However, early Friday morning the ship contacted the government agency Maritime New Zealand and an hour and a half later issued the Mayday call. The master told Maritime New Zealand that the vessel had again blacked out and lost steering, drifting, and rolling in the seas. Reports said the vessel was listing with the crew preparing to abandon ship.

Rescue teams were dispatched with an air force plane to monitor the situation and a helicopter from the Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter squad. One of DOF’s offshore anchor handlers also happened to be nearby in port as it is working on a contract for the oil and gas industry. They were able to secure its services to head to the containership.

The master later reported that the situation had stabilized and the crew was comfortable to stay aboard the disabled ship. Media reports said the seas had calmed with waves now at 16 feet and expected to fall to 6 to 7 feet by Saturday morning. Winds however were still at 15 mph.

The DOF vessel Skandi Emerald reached the Shiling at approximately 4:30 p.m. local time on Friday about five and a half hours after the Mayday call. They were able to reposition the Shiling into the wind and secure the tow line. Her AIS signal shows that she is proceeding at approximately 2.7 knots bound for Tasman Bay on the north coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

“The Skandi Emerald will tow the Shiling to a safe location, where it can anchor and be assessed for repairs,” Maritime New Zealand said in its update. They will continue to monitor the situation and begin a further investigation into the situation while reporting that rescue response teams had been released.

Elected officials had called into question the situation last month after the vessel broke down in the sheltered harbor and its previous history with two other power failures in the past year in New Zealand waters. They are now saying that they were lucky that the Skandi Emerald happened to be in New Zealand on assignment while calling for efforts to expand rescue resources and closely enforce maritime security.
 

Rescuers Responding to New Mayday Call from Problem Plagued Boxship

Rescue teams are heading toward the stricken vessel which is reportedly listing

PUBLISHED MAY 11, 2023 9:42 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Maritime New Zealand is responding to a Mayday call issued midday Friday, May 12 from a problem plagued containership that has been the center of a controversy at the Port of Wellington. They are reporting that the ship has once again lost power and steering and is drifting, but that while it is listing there is no immediate danger. Conditions improved after they issued the Mayday call and an ocean-going tug has been dispatched. A police launch is also standing-by as a precaution while reports indicate that an Air Force Hercules and a rescue helicopter have also been dispatched to the scene. 

The Singapore-registered containership Shiling (66,500 dwt) is no stranger to problems in New Zealand. Built in 2005, the 18-year-old vessel had only been released on Wednesday after a 24-day detention. During her previous power failure, she was maneuvering in the main channel in Wellington shortly after leaving her berth. She drifted across the harbor coming dangerously close to grounding. 

After the vessel was brought back to the dock, the Regional Harbourmaster for Wellington restricted the ship’s movements until engine repairs and tests had been undertaken and then maneuver tests were completed to the satisfaction of the pilot. In addition, the vessel was restricted to calm weather and required to be escorted to sea by a tug when she was finally permitted to sail.

Local elected officials however had questioned the safety of the vessel, highlighting that the Shiling had also had a brief engine stoppage on February 11 in Wellington Harbor. She also suffered an engine failure on July 4, 2022. After the April incident, they speculated if there was a risk of a more serious accident.

During her time at the pier, Shiling which has a capacity of 5,028 TEU was offloaded. The Harbourmaster permitted her to depart on May 9, with the understanding that she would be proceeding directly to Singapore for further repairs.

Hours after the Shiling headed out to sea, it was reported she was sheltering after encountering rough seas. Waves are reported to be running up to 26 feet north of Marlborough Sounds where the vessel had reached after her departure. Current reports place her approximately 22 nautical miles North-Northwest of Farewell Spit at the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.

Maritime New Zealand reports they were advised at 0827 this morning that the vessel was encountering problems and two and a half hours later the Shiling issued an official Mayday call. The captain said they were preparing to abandon ship. New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission confirms that it has received reports that the vessel is listing and that they were monitoring events. However, about an hour later, Maritime NZ said the master advised conditions had improved and that at this time they were not abandoning ship.

“Due to where the vessel is, there is no risk of it running aground prior to the arrival of the ocean-going tug,” Maritime New Zealand said in its advisory. They are reporting that there are 24 crew aboard.

Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre NZ has placed assets from NZ Police, Coastguard, and St John Airdesk on standby and will be tasking the assets as required. The police launch Lady Elizabeth IV is standing by to provide assistance. They are currently expecting the ocean-going tug Skandi Emerald to arrive from Taranaki by approximately 1700 to 1800 local time. The AIS signal for the offshore anchor handler, owned by DOF, shows she is sailing at near maximum speed of 13.6 knots to reach the containership. 
 
Maritime New Zealand reports this continues to be a developing situation and that further updates will be provided as events develop.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: The Origins and Traditions of May Day

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: The Origins and Traditions of May Day:    I wrote the Origins and Traditions of Mayday in 1997. Yes way back then, it was one of my first web postings. It was used to launch MayDay ...

CNN.com - May Day: Roots in an ancient rite 

edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/04/30/mayday.history/index.html

Apr 30, 2001 - The May Day holiday now associated with scenes of urban mayhem ... to Eugene Plawiuk, author of The Origins and Traditions of Mayday.

Contemporary Consumption Rituals: A Research Anthology
https://books.google.ca/books?isbn=1135635625
Cele C. Otnes, ‎Tina M. Lowrey - 2004 - ‎Business & Economics
Toward an understanding of consumer ambivalence. Journal of Consumer Research, 24, 80–93. Plawiuk, E. (1995). The origins and traditions of Mayday.

Le Gauche Review - OoCities MY ORIGINAL PAGE FROM 1996 ON GEO CITIES 

www.oocities.org/capitolhill/5202/gauche.htm

Labour News Article by Eugene Plawiuk, May 1996 ... Click above for my index of labour history articles on the web. ... The Origins and Traditions of Mayday.

She Went Undercover to a Crisis Pregnancy Center. They Told Her Abortion Is Reversible.

Kylie Cheung

JEZEBEL
Thu, December 15, 2022 

Screenshot: Mayday Health

In October, investigative reporter Olivia Raisner visited five anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers—clinics that often receive state funding, despite providing no medical services and pushing disinformation to dissuade pregnant people from choosing abortion—in Indiana. She entered each clinic armed with her pregnant friend’s urine, a button on her shirt that secretly doubled as a camera, and scheduled appointments. There, she declined to sign any paperwork that asked her not to record conversations to “make sure everything I did was legal,” Raisner told me in a phone interview. “The anti-abortion movement has been filming, not legally, for years now, and we don’t want to stoop to their level,” Raisner said.

On Thursday, Mayday Health posted a video capturing Raisner’s experiences at the CPCs. In one clip, after she turns in a positive pregnancy test and says she’s considering abortion, an employee immediately begins spewing a steady stream of easily disproven lies. The staffer warns Raisner, without any evidence, that “there’s been a lot of suicides” after abortion and that “it is a very common problem.” Ironically enough, research has shown that being denied an abortion negatively impacts someone’s mental health, and over 95 percent of people who have abortions don’t regret the decision. Nonetheless, the employee sternly claims that other mental health issues could arise, warning Raisner that having an abortion could even cause her to develop an eating disorder. She told Jezebel that several clinics said this.

The clinic worker featured in Mayday’s video specifically emphasized the (false) claim that if Raisner used medication abortion, she had the option to “reverse” the abortion through a special pill, via a dangerous, non-proven method called “abortion pill reversal.” Raisner told Jezebel that as medication abortion becomes more widely used, given its continued availability in all 50 states, anti-abortion activists are increasingly pushing this bogus, medically dangerous claim.

Even as Raisner had the facts going into the anti-abortion clinics, she said it still required significant effort to “keep my emotions and anger at bay” as clinic staff members lied to her face. “I knew that the longer I was able to stay in there, and really sell my story as a pregnant person, the more I would be able to record,” she explained. “I needed to show the interactions that are taking place countless times a day across the country, for all the pregnant people who go to these centers and don’t have the information.”



As Raisner explains in the video, it’s common for staff at crisis pregnancy centers to pose as actual doctors in order to push random, inaccurate medical claims about abortion—almost like anti-choice improv. The staffer Raisner interacts with proceeds to run through all the hits, including that abortion causes infertility (it doesn’t) and medication abortion pills are unsafe because of “high levels of estrogen and progesterone” (they don’t have either.) “They offer free ultrasounds, financial assistance, all the resources necessary, and make it very tempting to lean on them,” Raisner told Jezebel. “Unfortunately, we know they’re fake medical clinics whose only agenda is to spread lies, to shame people away from abortion.”

At the five clinics Raisner visited, she said it was as if all the employees were reading from the same pre-written “script,” with different anecdotes subbed in. “Conversations were almost identical—when I told them I was thinking about abortion, they all led with ‘suicide’ and the risk of that,” Raisner said. This sounds like the worst possible co-optation of heightened public awareness around mental health.

Advocates performing undercover sting operations around abortion aren’t uncommon—but famously, they’re more often perpetrated by anti-abortion activists going into abortion clinics and collecting and doctoring footage to galvanize cultural panics about “Planned Parenthood selling baby parts.” (The summer of 2015 feels like just yesterday.)

To prepare to perform her own undercover operation, Raisner researched local crisis pregnancy centers, made calls describing her made-up “situation,” and booked appointments. In advance of these appointments, she said she “practiced using this little remote control” to operate the button-camera and prepared questions that pregnant people typically ask—for example, about the safety of abortion and possible concerns. Of course, as Mayday Health’s video asserts, medication abortion results in fewer extreme complications than Tylenol.

Across the country, even before Roe v. Wade was overturned and several states immediately banned abortion, crisis pregnancy centers outnumbered actual abortion-providing clinics by a three-to-one ratio, and many centers receive state and federal funding. Further, because they aren’t actual health care centers, they aren’t bound to the same privacy standards set by HIPAA that actual health providers must abide by. Yet, they collect all of the same private and personal information that health providers do, with the freedom to share this information as they see fit.

Raisner told Jezebel that clinic staff took her driver’s license, her address, and asked about her job and her family and friends. “They very purposely try to identify other people in your life who could supposedly help you raise this baby,” she recalled. After she left the clinic saying she was unsure whether she’d get an abortion, CPC employees followed up several times and asked her to come back.

Crisis pregnancy centers have increasingly become a major surveillance apparatus for anti-abortion activists and even state governments that contract with anti-abortion clinics—with serious potential consequences when abortion and pregnancy loss are increasingly resulting in criminal charges.

Several victims of crisis pregnancy centers have told the Expose Fake Clinics campaign about similar experiences, including one who said that after she left a clinic, a CPC worker “began calling her almost daily and telling her that she would die, or end up in hell, or get very sick if she were to go through with the abortion.” Some said they were forced to sign contracts pledging to not have an abortion before leaving the clinic.

“They just want you to give birth, and they’ll say anything for that—they offered me money, gave me baby blankets, they invite the premise that they’ll be supporting me,” Raisner said. But it’s all just words. “It’s clear that that support really stops after that person gives birth.”

Martyrs for Millionaires: The Black-Market Politics behind the Theft of Syria’s Oil

July 28, 2023

Author Sheri Laizer

Exclusive to Ekurd.net

A convoy of oil trucks passes a Kurdish police (Assayish) checkpoint on a highway in Hasaka province, Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), April 2018. 

Photo: AP

A corrupt international collaboration that crosses political dividing lines is depriving Syria of its oil revenue.

By way of opening the subject, I asked various Syrian and non-Syrian observers, “Are the Americans stealing Syria’s oil, or is it just anti-American propaganda?”

LONG READ 

WITH FOOTNOTES

Azad [1] 34 years old, a Syrian professional of Kurdish ethnicity, caught between rival factions in Qamishli observed, “Yes, for sure, the Americans are stealing the oil. It’s not strange as they have already stolen antiquities that UNESCO identified as belonging to human heritage. They have been using the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as proxies. At the same time, they are also considering the possibility of backing a so-called Turkish “safe zone” in the area currently under the control of the SDF and the YPG forces in exchange for Turkey not normalising its relationship with the Syrian government on the one hand, and not allowing Russia to sell its grain via Turkey on the other.”

Yet another voice added in response, “They are exaggerating the role of grain from the Black Sea. For example, Ukraine makes up less that one percent of world wheat production and worse, its produce is treated genetically and is tainted so it is really only suitable for poultry, pigs and cattle feed. The agricultural markets are being corrupted as much as the oil and gas sector.” [2]

Azad said, “Well, the Kurdish leaders may cry out as in the past that we Kurds “have no friends but the mountains!” but the Americans have never said “We are friends with the Kurds of Syria. They keep referring to us simply as “our allies in fighting ISIS.”

Controversy over the Kurdish ‘allies’

In Azad’s view as a resident of Rojava (West Kurdistan), things were much better under Assad. Although he had initially been for Assad’s departure, what had happened since had led him to change his opinion, just as with many people living in Iraq. He said, “In addition, when it comes to freedom of speech in Rojava, the PYD – or to be more accurate, the PKK – suppresses any opposition. I took part in a demonstration against the closure of an institute that teaches the Syrian curriculum. I was beaten in front of my wife and students. Not only that, the commander of the Asayish ordered the driver of the Asayish’s car to run over the demonstrators. When one of the Asayish beat up a woman I tried to defend her and asked him, “Is this the concept of your leadership for women’s emancipation? He beat me and tore my clothes. The PYD authorities have closed down Rudaw, Kurdistan24 and Zagros channels. Wives of the martyrs are employed as waitresses for the cadres of the PKK and paid less than 50 dollars a month.”

Hazar, 43, another Kurdish professional argued, “the KDP, that owns Rudaw and Kurdistan TV, is loved solely by those who benefit from it financially. The SDF, YPG, and PKK are the ones who should take the lead as they consider men and women equal, boasting a brilliant system that positions them as the future of Kurds, advancing a century beyon the Iraqi Kurds. I do not support unity with the brainwashed Barzanis.”

The KDP works against the PYD and the PUK are supporting them. Both had good relations with Assad in the days before the 1991 uprising as Assad was against Saddam. Once Saddam was gone, the US and UK tried to do the same to him – and are still at it.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the Arab League summit, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 19, 2023. 

Photo: Saudi Press Agency SPA/via Ekurd.net

A Washington Institute (WKI) Fikra Forum policy paper on this issue, The Reality of Normalization with Assad: Syrians’ Perspectives, of July 11, 2023, omitted all reference to the ongoing theft of Syrian oil, claiming to base its stance on Syrian opposition views and focus argument on the trade in Captagon alone, opining: “the divergent agendas of the various Syrian opposition groups have made it difficult for a unified opposition platform to engage with the international and regional communities and win support…The real question in light of these developments is to what extent Assad is willing and able to abide by the conditions imposed by the Arab League in order to re-join the fold. The most important of these conditions involve the Syrian refugee crisis and the Syrian state’s trafficking of the drug Captagon…”

In my reading of the WKI Fikra Forum paper, the views espoused are those that support the Biden administration’s formal stand towards President Assad and that of Biden’s predecessors. They perpetuate the long-established anti-Assad rhetoric, and the threats posed by ISIS to justify the continued American presence across the region.

Many so-called human rights groups and monitors have served the anti-Assad propaganda agenda like the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, founded in 2006 and operated by a stake holder, Rami Abdulrahman, not a neutral entity but a former Syrian activist now based in the UK. [3]

The genuine Syrian opposition that appeared because of the domino effect of the Arab Spring in 2011 was swiftly overpowered by Sunni Islamic extremist groups backed by Turkey. Hezbollah, Iran and Iraq’s Shi’a militias then deployed to Syria to provide military support to Assad in conjunction with Russia. ISIS splintered into fiefdoms with Jabhat al-Nusra playing a leading role. Turkey provided training, finance, arms, and access for the Sunni jihadist groups. [4]

The UK White Helmets


Members of White Helmets organization in Aleppo, Syria, 2016. 

Photo: Reuters

The UK also sent in spies and trained mercenaries. The UK White Helmets operated mainly where the al-Nusra Front held sway in Idlib. A Renegade Inc. report says: “the White Helmets are, in reality, a British intelligence entity created in Turkey and trained in Jordan. In addition, the organisation’s PR and media machine are indirectly funded, among others by Incostrat, an organisation run by former military operative, Paul Tilley and May Day Rescue…The White Helmets then infiltrated, not into Syria, per say, but into areas occupied by Nusra Front-dominated proxies of the hostile nations. Given that the British tax-paying public fund the White Helmets who, Vanessa Beeley says, stand accused by Syrian civilians of a number of atrocities and war crimes, including summary executions of civilians, child abduction, organ trafficking, murder and theft, the journalist is at a loss as to why there has been no public inquiry into the organisation.“ [5]

More questions have been raised by the sudden death in Istanbul on November 11, 2019, of White Helmets co-founder, former British Army Officer, James Le Masurier (OBE). Coming from a military (Royal Green Jackets) and intelligence background, Le Mesurier helped set up the organisation in 2014 from the Turkish frontline with Syria. He was also involved in its funding along with his new wife. He had a past military history of operations in Northern Ireland and as an intelligence officer in Bosnia and Kosovo. After spearheading the White Helmets operations inside Syria, he had said he had planned to undertake similar activities in Ukraine. Reports concerning the fall to his death from his apartment balcony’ in Beyoglu, Istanbul differ depending on the source. But ‘by the end of October Le Mesurier would have had reason to believe that the net was closing on his role in the staging of alleged chemical attacks and on his business dealings…’ [6] He was planning to leave Turkey.

Turkish branch

The Istanbul apartment was also home to Le Mesurier’s Turkish company, Mayday Search and Rescue Training and Consultancy Services Ltd. (in Turkish, Mayday Arama Kurtarma Eğitim ve Danişmanlik Hizmetleri) [7] of which he was the director. It is situated at 3 Ali Pasa Medresesi Sok. in Beyoğlu. The three-storey building was reportedly recently renovated and hosted a cafe on the ground floor. Turkish sources also showed him with listed residences in Bakirkoy, the offshore Büyük Ada, and with its central office given as Ataşehir.

Former British army officer and backer of Syrian White Helmets James Le Mesurier stands near the Golden Horn in this undated file photo, in Istanbul. The lifeless body of James Le Mesurier was found on November 11, 2019, in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Photo: AP

ODATV questioned the Turkish company’s relations with Erdogan’s AKP government and why no annual report of its activities in Turkey was available. They had also tried to contact Le Mesurier in person to ask him questions about the company and the White Helmet’s role in Syria. He had not responded. The same Turkish investigative reporters had called attention to the White Helmet’s link with US and US propaganda and the original setting up of the Syrian Campaign’s mobilisation manipulation efforts in June 2014 during the Syrian Presidential Elections.

Anna Nolan, formerly a strategist at Purpose, claimed it was funded by a British businessman in the oil and gas sector of Syrian origin, the billionaire, Ayman Asfari. Petrofac of which he was director is registered in Jersey. Afsari was a donor to the Tory party and David Cameron [8] and of the Syria Campaign. He introduced the film screening and discussion of The White Helmets as an endorsing positive propaganda film by Director, Orlando von Einsidel, hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in September 2016. [9] Afsari was also a major supporter of the Syrian National Coalition and through his Afsari Foundation with his wife on the board “contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Campaign. [10]

They were all backing Le Mesurier.

Le Mesurier had confirmed that the total UK government funding of the White Helmets had been about £38.5 million ($51 million) over a five-year period to March 2018. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) provided about $33 million over a similar period. The Qatari Red Cross had made a donation of about $1 million and other funding came from the German, Canadian, Danish, and Japanese governments. [11] Anna Nolan was on the White Helmet’s Advisory Council from January 2019 to the present. [12] The Syria Campaign has been accused of “using local partners and media contacts to push the US into toppling another government.” [13] This was undoubtedly the agenda.

The “Grayzone claimed to shows how the Western government-funded White Helmets rescue civilians from Syrian and Russian bombs while lobbying for the U.S. military to step up its own bombing campaign…”

Not much, if anything, was being said openly at the time about Syrian oil amidst the smoke of bombs

The UK Daily Mail called Le Mesurier’s death suicide provoked by Russian disinformation and wrote “Le Mesurier was targeted by the Kremlin because he set up Mayday Rescue, an organisation that helped train and equip the White Helmets, a group of volunteers who rescued civilians in parts of Syria that opposed Assad… Le Mesurier was at the heart of Moscow’s disinformation campaign. One Syrian expert said he had faced ‘unimaginable pressure and targeting…A week before his death, an official at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused him on Twitter of being an MI6 spy with ‘connections to terrorist groups’ such as Al-Qaeda…” [14]

The BBC viewpoint was also that the strain became too much for him: James Le Mesurier took his own life. [15] However, it was not only Russia that claimed that the White Helmets were working with jihadists. Reliable independent journalists have also claimed they worked with ISIS and its affiliates and their operations were not just rescue operations. Rescue was the backbone and the justification given for setting up May Day Rescue, and at the same time documenting abuses with cameras mounted on the helmets of the crews. Those that lauded the White Helmets portray Vanessa Beeley as a ‘contributor to fringe conspiracy blog, 21st Century Wire’ [16] and perpetrator of pro-Russian theories. Le Mesurier was seeking to discredit her.

Emma Winberg and husband James Le Mesurier, a former British army officer and backer of Syrian White Helmets James Le Mesurier in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Photo: Dailymail.co.uk

What is true is that his wife of one year at the time of his death, Emma Winberg, was also a MayDay Rescue founder and former Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Political Officer (2007-2014). [17] Her updated LinkedIn profile says she was Chief Impact Officer for Mayday Rescue between January 2017-June 2022, continuing after her husband’s death in November 2019. She had also been a co-founder of InCoStrat (Innovative Communication and Strategies), and was active in Iraq for a year between January 2015- December 2016. She spent time in Erbil.

The Gray Zone’s Leaked documents expose massive Syria propaganda operation waged by western government contractors and media has since been picked up by the British Communists who state: “Four PR firms in particular have been named as key players in the sordid operation that played out over the past decade: Analysis Research Knowledge (Ark), The Global Strategy Network (TGSN), Innovative Communications and Strategies (InCoStrat) and Albany.

They claim that ARK popularized the White Helmets and sought to legitimize the jihadist Free Syrian Army: “Ark oversaw the PR campaign for the Supreme Military Council (SMC), which led the misnamed ‘Free Syria Army’ (FSA). It worked to “provide a ‘rebranding’ of the SMC in order to distinguish itself from extremist armed opposition groups and to establish the image of a functioning, inclusive, disciplined and professional military body”…It was Ark’s plan to “soften the FSA image”, to make it palatable, building on the work started by Basma, a project financed by Britain and the US, which had“carried out a limited rebranding for the FSA that was well received”. [18]

This appears to have taken place. The Fikra Forum article cited from above also chimes with its slant when referring to the ‘opposition.’

According to InCoStrat, its role in Syria was “managing and delivering a multi-donor project in support of UK foreign policy objectives … specifically providing strategic communication support to the moderate armed opposition”…The organisation has had its hand in similar projects in Afghanistan, Honduras, Iraq and Libya, working not only for the British but also for the governments of the United States, Singapore, Latvia, Sweden, Denmark and Libya…In Iraq, its agents trained anti-Saddam Hussein journalists in the city of Basra following the 2003 invasion. [19] It also has offices in Erbil.

Reporting concerning the various entities operating inside Syria has been subject to propaganda and counter propaganda from the outset. Governments, think tanks, PR companies, consultancies, strategists and ex-military personnel have played key roles in the chaotic struggle to control Syria.

In 2020, the FCO files on its propaganda programmes in Syria were hacked and leaked. Middle East Eye reported: “Hackers have penetrated the computer systems of the UK’s foreign ministry and taken hundreds of files detailing the country’s controversial propaganda programmes in war-torn Syria… The FCDO became aware of the breach last week, after some documents had been posted by the hacking collective known as Anonymous… The The documents posted on the internet in recent days identify not only private-sector contractors working for the Foreign Office, but also a number of the individuals who are running those companies…However, MEE understands that senior FCDO officials are less concerned about the contents of many of the documents – as the existence of the propaganda programme had already been made public – than they are about the apparent ease with which the department’s computer systems were broken into…Similar programmes have been run in Syria by the UK’s Ministry of Defence, which does not appear to have been hacked.” [20]

Such activity and its funding was routed through a division of a British government fund called the Syrian Resilience Programme of the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) “which claims to tackle conflicts that threaten UK interests.21

Mayday Rescue Foundation, 2015. Photo: Mayday Rescue’s FB

An investigation conducted by the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media revealed a month after James Le Mesurier’s death in December 2019: “Le Mesurier was founder of three companies named “Mayday Rescue”: Mayday Rescue FZ-LLC in Dubai (2014), Mayday Search and Rescue Training and Consultancy Services Limited in Turkey (2014) and Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation in the Netherlands (2015). No accounts are available for any of these companies…After providing misleading answers to questions submitted under the Freedom of Information Act, the FCO has admitted that its payments to “Mayday Rescue” for support of the White Helmets – £43 million from 2015 to 2018 – were made not to Stichting Mayday Rescue Foundation but to the commercial company Mayday Rescue FZ-LLC in Dubai…[22] another of Le Mesurier’s companies.

Between 2005-2008 he had also been the Vice President for Special Projects at the Dubai-based security firm Olive Group, and Special advisor to the Iraqi Minister of Interior, the notorious Bayan Jabr Solagh (Baqr Jabr Al-Zubeidi) of Iran-loyal SCIRI (Supreme Councl for Islamic Revolution in Iraq) now ISCI (Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq) Jabr was accused of torture in secret prisons under the MOI. The Olive Group still runs courses in Iraqi Kurdistan. [23] Le Mesurier also worked with ARK.

“The White Helmets are also operating in at least one Isil-held area.”

Citing Vanessa Beeley in a well sourced article, she says “In a USAID report update in July 2015 it is clearly stated that they have supplied over $ 16m in assistance to the White Helmets. [24] She was also correct in citing a 2015 Telegraph article that revealed “The White Helmets are also operating in at least one Isil-held area.” [25]

This was during the height of ISIS rule over much of Syria and Iraq. So how could they ‘operate’ there?

American oil grab

For its part, the American intervention was profoundly destabilising from the moment the United States became involved. Washington’s regional agenda was suspect from the start. The government’s claim to be protecting Syria’s oil fields from ISIS was no more than a pretense that even the loud-mouthed 45th president exposed as such three years ago. Trump in press conference with Turkey’s Erdogan announced, “We’re keeping the oil. We have the oil. The oil is secure. We left troops behind only for the oil…” [26] And of his relations with Erdogan, he went on, “the president and I have been very good friends…we have been friends for a very long time, …almost most from day one and we understand each other’s country. We understand where we are coming from…” [27]

Turkish Minister of Energy Berat Albayrak, 2017.

 Photo: birgun.net

They knew where they were headed and how to transport Syria’s oil out of the country to their mutual benefit, cutting in the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) under Massoud Barzani.

Erdogan’s sworn enemy, the SDF, as America’s ally still also has a useful role to play. All parties to the theft of Syrian oil like the money. The politics can apparently be shoved under the rug in the interests of business. This is reminiscent of the claims made against Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, in the illegal trade in oil out of Iraq with ISIS [28] via Powertrans. [29]

Another commentator who did not wish to be named explained: “Have you heard of Watat Petrol? Watad petrol belongs to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) formerly the Al Nusra Front that broke off from Al Qaeda between July 2016-July 2017 and to Turkey, and has been funded by Ukraine since 2016, run through four of Erdogan’s companies. American troops move 120,000 bopd from Syria to the Tüpraş refinery in Batman in Turkey, refine it there, and then one part of the proceeds goes to funding HTS, while the rest is divided between Erdogan, Zelensky and the USA. HTS took over Afrin in October 2022 as the Turkish-backed jihadists withdrew. [30]

Hundreds of oil truck tankers on Turkish-Islamic State-controlled Syrian border, photo released Russian Defence Ministry in Moscow on Dec 2, 2015. 

Photo: Reuters

The KDP also gets 25,000 bpd free for not interfering and the profits from that go into the coffers of the Barzanis. The YPG are active at the well sites with the US army standing guard and get paid to protect the oil convoys transporting 120,000 bopd out of NW Syria. In the second week of July 2023, Syrian troops launched an assault on one of these drilling sites, killing 30 US marines. HTS was sponsored by USAID and the US.

For its part, the Turkish entity is owned by Murat Sancak, who is 50% owner and Chairman of MT Holding or MT Group [31]. The other stakeholders are BlackRock [32] 18%, Erdogan 15% with the US holding, 17% under the CIA’s asset of Delta Force relying on the Marines for protection.”

The source claimed the US moved 2,500 more Marines into the area for this reason and set up a base paying Jordan $25 billion to keep its F16’s and F 35 there. They got very upset when the KSA, Iran, and the Arab League started acting together to protect the region from the Americans.”

Counter claims

The old Tüpraş refinery in the Kurdish region of Batman, first set up in 1955, has a capacity of 1.4 million ton. [33] In 2015 during the height of ISIS illegal oil trade the company formally denied its cooperation in any illegal oil refining. It said the oil came from the Turkish Petroleum Company (TP) and from licensed crude oil producers inside Turkey. [34]

Watad itself claims that it imports its petrol from Turkey. In 2022, it changed the names of its operators in Idlib and shut down Watad’s name. The North Press Agency confirmed Watad’s link with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS and detailed developments there saying that Watad officially stated on its media: ‘Watad Petroleum, after five years of work, announces the complete halt of its work, after the HTS’ General Directorate of Petroleum Derivatives did not approve the new licensing agreement, starting from tomorrow Saturday…‘In addition, the HTS’ General Directorate of Petroleum Derivatives announced the names of the companies whose licensing applications were accepted in order to supply the region with fuel. The companies were Al-Arabiya, Al-Salam, Al-Rahma, Taiba, Al-Etihad, and Al-Alamiyah Company…According to informed sources, all the six mentioned companies are affiliated with the HTS, and what the latter did to Watad was a matter of changing names. The reason for that, the sources said, is to distribute the work to the six companies so as none of them can be accused of monopolizing the market…For five years, Watad has been the only company that monopolized the fuel market and controlled its prices in the HTS-held areas, (in) north-western Syria.’ [35]

Unnamed rival Jihadists are behind regular attacks on the SDF, its security forces, and Americans in the region. [36] The Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army’s (FSA – mainly Sunni jihadists) affiliated Third Legion also competed for a share of the oil trade with HTS in Idlib. Turkey tried to sponsor a truce because it backs so many of them. Locals paid double the prices. These groups also cut down the locals’ olive trees to drive them off their lands and repopulate them with Sunni extremists.

Syrian civilians pay the price


A money changer holds 1,000 Syrian pound banknotes. 

Photo: Reuters

For ordinary people living in Syria, says Hamid * 45, a father of two university age children, “Life is getting worse and worse everyday. There is a lot of pollution under the control of the “Ecological Self-Administration”. There is a shortage of cooking gas, of water and electricity. The cost of living is exorbitant. The dollar exchange rate has exceeded SYP 10,000. ISIS, the YPG, the Syrian regime, the US and Turkey are all collaborating in this illegal trade. I’m sure if America had wanted to get rid of ISIS, it wouldn’t have allowed them to occupy Mosul. Is it rational that a convoy of more than 60 cars headed from Raqqa to Mosul without the American drones noticing (and stopping) them? How could that convoy defeat the two military brigades that were based in Mosul? More than that, I think that ISIS chose Mosul and not some other city because the Americans (Israel behind the scenes) wanted to take revenge against the Assyrians against a historic background of Jewish Babylonian captivity.

He added that his knowledge reports also claim the Syrian Desert contains silicon and that’s why ISIS emerged there. “To the best of my knowledge, Aleppo and Idlib had an Islamic fundamentalist presence but not Raqqa so how come Raqqa was taken all of a sudden by ISIS? These are just some of my speculations, but what do you think?”

Martyrs for Millionaires



KDP party leader and the head of Barzani clan, Massoud Barzani, 2018. 

Photo: PA

Barzani and the KDP have outlawed all criticism of their oil dealings and of the party, its institutions and Asayish security forces and evoke – in justification – the sacrifices made by the martyrs and peshmergas. But these ‘martyrs and peshmergas” are not only Kurds claimed by the KDP elite [37] but also their Shi’a allies against Saddam Hussein such as the late Imam Mohammed Baqr Sadr. This stance reflects their alliance in Baghdad with his heir, Muqtada al-Sadr [38] and their constant quest to maintain power, status and revenues twenty years on. The co-operation dates back to their siding with Iran against Iraq throughout the Iran-Iraq war and effectively being traitors to their own country. When the US and UK brought down the Ba’ath government, these same players were waiting in the wings to take over but lacked the experience to do so effectively.

A Freedom House report from 2022 on Iraq concerning freedom on the Internet severely criticized the repressive legislation introduced by the KRG to maintain the status quo there: “In June 2022…the KRG’s Ministry of Culture issued a statement warning media organizations, including news sites and social media platforms, to abstain from publishing articles criticizing the Kurdistan region or any other content that they believe would incite fear among residents or raise concerns about the Kurdistan region’s stability. [89] The ministry also promised to sanction those who do not comply. Also in June, a joint ministerial committee was reported to be drafting media regulation legislation. If passed, television channels and social media pages would no longer be allowed to distribute content deemed to insult “the martyrs and the flag of Kurdistan.” [90]…

Authorities in both Iraq and the Kurdistan region use a variety of laws to arrest and charge online users, at times to threaten outspoken critics into silence (see C2). According to a May 2021 report from the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq on freedom of expression in the Kurdistan region, “the legal system is being ‘instrumentalized’ in order to disrupt the activities of these individuals and subject them to pressure which may lead to self-censorship.” [104] [39]

Corruption and the illegal oil trade are taboo issues.

The Freedom House report also detailed the propagation of fake news:

In June 2020, Facebook reported that it had removed 324 pages, 71 accounts, 5 groups, and 31 Instagram accounts that were tied to an inauthentic online network originating in the Kurdistan region. Facebook traced the activity to individuals associated with the Zanyari Agency, the PUK-affiliated intelligence service of the KRG. According to Meta, the network spent around $270,000 to sponsor accounts that impersonated local politicians, political parties, and news organizations. [114] These networks also train people to impersonate opponents, create disinformation, disseminate propaganda, manipulate political discourse, promote their strategies, and amplify political narratives while covering their misdoings. [40]

An opposition Kurdish activist living in London, Bedreddin, 22, who was among those pelting Masrour Barzani with eggs in protest for the KDP cooperation with Erdogan’s Turkey during his 2022 visit and immense wealth accrued from public funds said, “These parties no longer represent us. The leaders only care about their pockets and their own families. No one can get a job unless he signs up with them.”

This was echoed by the families of Kurdish dead claimed as martyrs of the YPG over the close ties between the Barzanis and Erdogan. The PKK run news agency, ANF, ran an article in May 2023 headed, Relatives of Martyrs in Rojava: Barzani Families’ Support for Erdogan Breaks Our heart. It reads in part:

“Relatives of martyrs in Rojava reacted to the Barzani family, who congratulated Erdogan right after he was elected president on Sunday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shakes hands with Iraqi Kurdistan region President Nechirvan Barzani, Ankara, Turkey, June 3, 2023. Barzani attends Erdogan’s swearing-in ceremony for the 3rd time. 

Photo: Nechirvan Barzani press office/via Ekurd.net

“The second round of the Turkish presidential election took place on May 28. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the murderer of Kurdish children, was re-elected as president. Masrour Barzani, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region, and Nechirvan Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Region, congratulated Erdogan immediately after his re-election as president on Sunday. Families of martyrs from Afrin living in Shehba Canton spoke to ANHA and expressed their reactions: “Martyr Gerzan’s mother Emel Qehreman said: “The Barzani family has once again shown their betrayal against the Kurdish people. The Turkish state has been hostile towards us for years, killing our children and our people. The Barzani family should abandon its treacherous attitude. Their support for Erdogan breaks our hearts.” [41]

The same is happening in relation to the Iranian Kurdish parties with the KRG prioritizing its relations and trade with Iran. It may be called Realpolitik but the millionaires (and billionaires) running the KRG pretend to act in the name of martyrs and national security.

Meanwhile, Turkey is upping its campaign of attacks against SDF positions in Syria [42] and seeking cooperation from Baghdad and Erbil against them and the PKK. The new Turkish Foreign Minister is former Intelligence Chief, Hakan Fidan. He is seeking the same kind of determined co-operation against the SDF and PKK from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) under Bafel and Qubad Talabani as the KDP gives Turkey. [43]

Kurds and genuine lovers of liberty risking their lives in this dirty international game are becoming martyrs for millionaires.

1 Asterisks indicate that the first names of those giving testimony have been modified.
2 https://ahdb.org.uk/news/impact-of-russia-pulling-out-of-black-sea-initiative-grain-market-daily
3 https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/world/middleeast/the-man-behind-the-casualty-figures-in-syria.html?auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tap
4 See, for example, Turkey: NATO’s Islamic State Member https://ekurd.net/turkey-natos-islamic-state-member-2019-02-21
5 https://renegadeinc.com/white-helmets-or-whitewash/
6 https://syriapropagandamedia.org/james-le-mesurier-a-reconstruction-of-his-business-activities-and-covert-role
7 https://www.odatv4.com/analiz/iste-suriyeyi-karistiran-orgutun-turkiyedeki-sirketi-12091809-146302
8 After an SFO investigation into fraud and bribery Asfari who built the company had to stand down as CEO late in 2020 but remained on the board. Of interest the Guardian noted: “Petrofac and its peers were briefly stock market darlings a decade ago before a declining oil price hit shares. The stock has fallen 80% since the SFO opened its investigation.The affair threw a spotlight on two former prime ministers’ links to the company. In 2017, David Cameron promoted the company during a two-day stay in Bahrain, flying back from the country on a plane owned by Asfari. Theresa May wrote to her Bahraini counterpart to support Petrofac’s bid for a contract in the country during her tenure in Downing Street. Petrofac did not ultimately land the contract. Asfari has, with his wife, given about £800,000 to the Conservative party.
9 https://carnegieendowment.org/2016/09/27/white-helmets-film-screening-and-discussion-event-5374
10 https://thegrayzone.com/2016/10/02/syria-campaign-pr-firm-lobbying-regime-change/
11 https://www.almendron.com/tribuna/why-assad-and-russia-target-the-white-helmets/
12 https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-c-nolan/?originalSubdomain=uk
13 https://thegrayzone.com/2016/10/02/syria-campaign-pr-firm-lobbying-regime-change/
14 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8934683/Ex-British-Army-White-Helmets-trainer-Istanbul-balcony-fall-did-kill-wasnt-murdered.html
15 See BBC Podcast: Mayday: Investigating The Life And Death Of James Le Mesurier, presented by Chloe Hadjimatheou
16 https://medium.com/dfrlab/tracking-narratives-around-james-le-mesurier-and-the-white-helmets-40b767cc6cf5
17 Emma Winberg’s former Linkedin profile for that period is no longer available and has been changed to Emma Le Mesurier where her recent work history can be seen.
18 https://thecommunists.org/2020/10/16/news/dirty-british-propaganda-war-against-syria-exposed/
19 https://thecommunists.org/2020/10/16/news/dirty-british-propaganda-war-against-syria-exposed/
20 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-uk-government-probing-cyber-attack-over-syria-propaganda-leaks
21 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/revealed-how-british-media-operation-sought-turn-alawites-against-assad
22 https://syriapropagandamedia.org/james-le-mesurier-a-reconstruction-of-his-business-activities-and-covert-role
23 https://www.olivegroup.training/our-international-courses/
24 https://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/tag/olive-group/
25 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/…
26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U10p3Tn9V5Y
27 Guardian News, 14 November 2019: Donald Trump has insisted the US military presence in Syria is ‘only for the oil’
28 https://ekurd.net/business-with-isis-updated-2022-10-25
29 https://thepressproject.gr/exclusive-wikileaks-documents-relations-erdogan-isis-oil-smuggling/
30 https://www.voanews.com/a/jihadist-group-takes-over-strategic-town-in-northwest-syria/6788541.html
31 https://mtholding.com.tr/chairmans-message
32 See for example, https://www.reuters.com/article/turkey-stocks-etf-idINL8N1TH3QE
33 https://www.tupras.com.tr/rafineriler
34 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/energy/oil/tupras-refutes-involvement-in-any-illegal-oil-trade/8179
35 https://npasyria.com/en/86406/
36 https://npasyria.com/en/101417/
37 https://gavtv.net/en/4627
38 https://presidency.gov.krd/en/president-nechirvan-barzani-i-call-on-sayyid-muqtada-al-sadr-to-start-comprehensive-talks-with-all-political-parties/
39 https://freedomhouse.org/country/iraq/freedom-net/2022
40 Ibid.
41 https://anfenglish.com/news/relatives-of-martyrs-in-rojava-barzani-family-s-support-for-erdogan-breaks-our-heart-67493
42 https://anfenglish.com/rojava-syria/occupation-forces-attack-a-village-in-til-temir-68386
43 https://agsiw.org/turkeys-spymaster-turned-foreign-minister-could-reshape-iraq-policy/

Sheri Laizer, a Middle East and North African expert specialist and well known commentator on the Kurdish issue. She is a senior contributing writer for Ekurd.net. More about Sheri Laizer see below.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Ekurd.net or its editors.

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