Syrian mercenaries in Nagorno-Karabakh: "I can shoot you right here"

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Syrian fighters in Idlib

Photo: Omar Haj Kadour / AFP

Tareq came back alive.

This is rather the exception these days for the several thousand Syrians who were brought from Turkey as mercenaries to the Caucasus.

Wave after wave of them have been thrown to the front lines of the Azerbaijan offensive since September, where they are supposed to fight for the recapture of the predominantly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

Actually, only those killed return quickly.

Otherwise the mercenaries are supposed to stay for months.

How Tareq managed to get home safe after two weeks of war is a story of dramatic twists and turns and great happiness.

She tells a lot about the great power fantasies of the Turkish leadership as well as their failure.

And above all: There is someone who can tell this story from his own perspective, although only parts of his descriptions can be independently verified.

Tareq's story begins long before the fighting broke out.

Rumors were already circulating in the Syrian rebel province of Idlib and the northern part of the province of Aleppo, where the Turkish army rules, in mid-August: The Turks would hire men again, as they did before for their war effort in Libya.

This time for Azerbaijan, the brother people of Turkey, as it is called in Ankara.

The Syrians would be used as guard posts in front of Turkish military bases.

For this, they would get up to $ 2,000 a month, which would be suspiciously high for the job.

Members of the Turkish-financed units within Syria receive 400 Turkish lira a month, the equivalent of 41 euros.

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