Since fighting broke out between Armenian forces and Azerbaijan in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, there have been reports of mercenaries from Syria participating in the battle. The Guardian published a story on Friday that quoted a Syrian who was recruited to support Azerbaijan.
The Guardian, and other media outlets, had previously reported that a Turkish security firm recruited men in northern Syria to work as border guards in Azerbaijan for around $1,000 a month. The governments of Russia and France have said they have information that indicates fighters are being sent to the conflict zone from northern Syria.
On Friday, AFP cited the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and said 28 Syrian fighters have been killed in Nagorno-Karabakh. Relatives of three fighters confirmed their deaths to AFP.
The Guardian spoke with Mustafa Khalid for Friday’s story, a 23-year-old Syrian man from Idlib city who asked not to use his real name. Khalid said he signed up on September 18th and was now posted on the line of contact, the border that separates Azeri forces and Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Khalid said he traveled with a contingent of 1,000 men from Turkish-backed opposition groups in northern Syria. The group crossed the Syrian-Turkish border and traveled to a military base in Gaziantep, Turkey, where they boarded a plane to Istanbul. From Istanbul, the mercenaries flew in cargo planes to Azerbaijan. The Guardian said flight data confirmed the account.
“I was hesitant to come here at the beginning because I had no idea about this country and I don’t speak the language. I knew there were skirmishes between the two countries, but I didn’t know that I was coming to war. I thought it was just guard work,” Khalid said.
The fighting has been fierce in Nagorno-Karabakh and entered its sixth day on Friday. Almost 200 people have been killed, including more than 30 civilians. Turkey declared its support for Azerbaijan early on in the fighting but has denied accusations of being involved militarily.
One way to solve Idlib problem. All that will remain is truce renamed Al-Qaeda, currently branded as HTS — and their Western money bags, White Helmets. As Turkey and Russia consider those terrorists, jib gets easier.
Nagorno-Karabakh is now a world class geopolitical mess, and be not shocked, US and UK have fingerprints all over it.
Ever since 2018 — game plan was on. A street-decided, colored elections had Armenian diaspora (and State Department) money all over it. Massive influx of money, botched elections, and voila! Nikol Pashinyan, our favorite, became prime minister. In addition to the president, against all laws a UK citizen.
Russia did not interfere — Armenia was dependent in Russia for defense. It served Armenia right — Nagorno-Karabakh became independent of Azerbaijan, and managed to get a buffer of seven Azeri regions displacing massively the population. Status quo held.
Then US decided to change it. Besides financing regime change in Yerevan, US started selling arms to Azerbaijan, and Israel was all over it selling drones. The idea was simple — get both countries dependent on US, manipulate them into war, and wrong-foot Russia in its back yard.
If I were to guess the goal — have Yerevan and NK pay a price by having Azerbaijan recover some of its regions — and have Russia called upon by CSTO treaty to intervene, then declare alliance useless and Russia responsible for its loses. Or having Jerevan call for mediation that would revive ling dead Minsk group with US and France. With both Yerevan and Baku dependent on US — slam dunk fir US and France. Right?
Wrong. Baku was buying weapons from Russia as well, and will never cross either Iran nor Russia. This is where bad Turkey comes in. By supporting its long time ally Baku, the objective is to oust US and Israel from direct meddling in the region. This is — protestations notwithstanding — coordinated with Russia and Iran.
NATO and EU are itching to slap sanctions on Turkey as it has undermined every their olan thus far by coordinating with Russia in Syria, Libya, Eastern Mediterranean and now in NK conflict.
With Turkey signaling support for Baku newly discovered hard line approach — the presure is on Yerevan.
Foolishly enough — NK started this round probably on US urging. Why? Because Baku dragged its feet — and did not want ti be accused of starting it.
The irony is — Western media feeling bad about poor militants from Syria being shocked by having been paid to fight! Poor innocents from Idlib?
And even more irony. The same ones that erased Shia villages in Idlib region are now to assist a Shia nation to fight!
Do you think this plays into US/Israel’s plan to surround Iran with conflict? Nagorno-Karabakh may not be close Iran’s border but this conflict could spread…