Erdogan sends Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan

Aya Ezz

Armenia’s ambassador in Moscow has revealed that Turkey had sent over 4,000 Syrian mercenaries to Azerbaijan.

However, an aide of the president of Azerbaijan denied this.

Battles continued to rage on, meanwhile, between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the disputed border region of Nagorno-Karabakh which is inhabited by 150,000, most of them Armenians.

The ongoing clashes are the most violent since 2016. Dozens of people were reportedly killed and injured in the clashes.

Armenia accused Turkey of sending military advisors to Azerbaijan to command the battles against the Armenian army. It said Ankara had also sent drones and fighter jets to Azerbaijan.

Dangerous confessions

According to the Turkish newspaper, Zaman, two Syrian mercenaries backing Erdogan said they had travelled to Azerbaijan in coordination with Ankara.

One of the mercenaries, who is a member of Ahrar al-Sham, said he did not want to travel to Azerbaijan.

“I do not have money and life is so tough in Syria,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

He said he coordinated his travel to Azerbaijan with a Turkey-backed official in the northwestern Syrian village of Afrin.

According to the second mercenary, about 1,000 Syrian fighters would be deployed in Azerbaijan.

Some locals from Nagorno-Karabakh said between 700 and 1,000 Syrian mercenaries had arrived in the disputed region.

Each of the fighters will get a salary of $1,500 a month, the locals said.

Terrorism sponsor

International relations expert Mohamed Hussein accused Erdogan of being the main sponsor of terrorism in the region.

“Erdogan wants to control the Armenians,” Hussein told The Reference. “This is why he works to stoke tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”