Mercenaries from Syria are being recruited to fight in the ongoing armed confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, CNN reported citing a Syrian national who has signed up for the deployment
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2020) Mercenaries from Syria are being recruited to fight in the ongoing armed confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, CNN reported citing a Syrian national who has signed up for the deployment.
The former rebel from the Syrian National Army (SNA), backed by Turkey, has registered to travel from northern Syria to Azerbaijan for $1,500 per month, the report said on Wednesday.
The man, who refused to provide his name, said the leader of the SNA had asked those willing to go to fight to register for three-months-long contracts.
The Syrian man said he did not know who was funding the operation and that around 1,000 fighters had signed up for it.
He said he was prepared to travel to Azerbaijan to lift his family from poverty, and security work was the only way he can do so.
Earlier in the day, sources from the Syrian opposition told Sputnik that a third batch of rebels was preparing to deploy to Azerbaijan from Turkey.
The second source added that Turkey is now preparing to send the third batch of Syrian fighters to Nagorno-Karabakh, and the names of combatants who want to go to the region "are now being registered and collected."
On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Moscow was concerned over reports about the transfer of militants of illegal armed groups to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. Presidents of Russia, France and the United States - Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump, respectively - on Thursday issued a joint statement on the Karabakh conflict, in which they condemned the recent escalation.
Macron subsequently said France had credible information about Syrian militants being deployed to the site of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Earlier in the week, the Armenian side stated that militants from Turkey and the Middle East were acting on the side of Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. These accusations were denied by Baku and there has been no further confirmation. Bouthaina Shaaban, a political and media adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad has also argued, in an interview with Sputnik, that Ankara is the driving force behind the current conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Commenting on Russia's concern about the involvement of militants in the conflict, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva said that Armenia "makes extensive use of such resources" and is "especially actively attracting terrorists and mercenaries from the Middle East." Omer Celik, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party has denied the reports about the alleged recruitment of mercenaries for fighting in Azerbaijan as "propaganda."
