TDs visit Syria with writer for Putin-linked policy group
A CONTROVERSIAL Irish academic – who writes for a think-tank run by a Vladimir Putin ally under US sanctions – organised a trip to Syria for TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace.
Dr Declan Hayes told the Irish Mail on Sunday he organised the visit to the country, which is in the grip of a brutal civil war, and the group met with Syria’s Minister for Tourism, its Minister for Higher Education and a Syrian MP.
Mr Hayes writes for the Katehon website, which is run by Russian investment banker and President Putin confidant Konstantin Valeryevich Malofeev. Mr Malofeev is currently under US and EU sanctions for his alleged financing of separatist movements in Ukraine.
Wallace and Daly last night remained tightlipped about the trip – which has previously drawn criticism for the potential to legitimise the Putin-backed Bashar Al-Assad regime.
The Independents 4 Change TDs travelled to Syria on a ‘factfinding’ mission where they visited bars and restaurants at a time when millions struggled to eat. The pair travelled to parts of the country controlled by Bashar Al-Assad who has been accused of using chemical weapons against Syrians. They visited several sites with a group to controversial regimecontrolled regions where they observed Syria’s ‘night life’.
In November Mr Hayes travelled to Syria as part of an Irish ‘delegation’ to meet members of the Tourism Ministry, despite a reported 1,241 people killed by the war in the state that month alone. Speaking to the MoS, Mr Hayes said: ‘I helped organise for Clare Daly and Mick Wallace to go to Syria. I went with them. I organised the visas, I helped for them to be shown around. They weren’t going to be my little puppets. I didn’t pay for their visas, they paid for the visas themselves.’
When asked about his links to the Katehon website and a meeting with British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – which has led to controversy in the UK – Mr Hayes claimed he was the victim of a smear campaign. He said: ‘I stand over everything I wrote in the Katehon. The Conservative Party organised that meeting [to brief Jeremy Corbyn about Syria]. I have met senior members of the British Conservative party. I have been helped by senior members of Fine Gael, ministers, I have been in to Fianna Fail TDs.’
Mr Hayes, who has been described as an Assad apologist, was previously on an Interpol watchlist. He was arrested in
Thailand in December 2015. Speaking about the arrest in Bangkok airport, Mr Hayes said: ‘That’s true. People get arrested at airports all the time. I was arrested on landing at Bangkok Airport. Hampshire police paid me compensation for putting my name on an Interpol blacklist and they signed…their solicitors…an abject letter of apology.’
Asked about being described as an Assad apologist, Mr Hayes said: ‘I have been described as worse things before.’ When pressed about details of his visit to Syria with the TD, Mr Hayes said the TDS were in a group of about 12 people from Ireland, Romania, Sweden and Spain. He said: ‘It’s not a crime to meet. What I got out of it is they organised a debate in the Oireachtas, a debate for a few days [about Syria]. I brought them to churches that had been damaged, schools that had been hit by suicide bombs, and to a Shia community. They met an MP who is a friend of mine, a Syrian MP, I know her family. She is an Independent MP for the Damascus region. We met the Minister for Higher Education, the Minister for Tourism organised the visa. It wasn’t a hush-hush meeting… You need paperwork to go through otherwise you are going to be blown up or assassinated.’
Galway-based activist Niall Farrell, who accompanied the TDs on the trip, described the group’s night in a beer garden in Syria in an article for the Galway Advertiser.
Mr Farrell said: ‘Yes, I was on that trip. I met the Minister for Tourism, I went to Homs and Aleppo. I met a lot of people of the streets and got a good feeling for the place.’
The TDs didn’t return repeated attempts to contact them.