There were three rebel groups operating in Azaz, each with control over a different sector of town, and although they had loosely coöperated to drive out Assad's Army, each group appeared to keep mostly to itself.
Geoffry Crothall, a campaigner from the Hong Kong-based advocacy group China Labour Bulletin, said he believed the wave of arrests against key labour organisers was "definitely part of a wider central party agenda to reassert control over all sectors of society and the economy".
But never before in England had Whitehall been asked to surrender so much control over a local public sector, not even in London.
The United States did not intervene because the Soviet Union was exercising control over its sector.
The PIP scandal revealed how seriously things could go awry and has pushed the government toward tightening control over that sector.
Countries with vibrant political competition but limited institutional capacity pose the most significant challenge for oil sector reform: Unitary control over the sector is impossible but separation of functions is often difficult to implement.
For example, in a downside scenario, in which Venezuela resembles Cuba, the current government could decide to cancel presidential elections slated for December 2018 indefinitely and take control over private sector activities with the aid of the military.
Oil is seen as the key driver of Libya's fortunes post-Gaddafi and control over the sector is being bitterly contested between its new government and its tribes and militias.
But Global Witness, a group that highlights the links between the exploitation of natural resources and human rights abuses, said that the new legislation would give the president and his energy minister "total control over the sector" and warned that it would "perpetuate the status quo of secrecy, excessive ministerial control and corruption allegations".
"There is no intention for the Scottish government to have any involvement in the appointment process for the position of chair at any institution, so any suggestion of us exerting greater direct control over the sector is just wrong," she said.
