While Baku denies that there are fighters from terrorist organizations in Syria, evidence on the ground indicates such involvement • Report in Syria: Bodies transferred to state from Azerbaijan
Pro-Turkish rebels in Syria and Turkish President Erdogan // Photo: Reuters
More details Immediately as the Nagorno War II your battle continues to escalate and claim casualties, more and more reports emerge regarding the involvement of Syrian terrorist organizations in the fighting in the disputed region between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Along with a large amount of exaggerated reports, misinformation and propaganda from both sides, more and more evidence that Arabic-speaking Syrian fighters are participating in battles alongside the Azeri army is being published in the media and social networks.
Videos released in recent days show Arabic-speaking fighters during a shelling in the Nagorno-Karabakh region cursing the "Armenian dogs" Other videos show a Syrian fighter boasting of loot taken from Armenian forces.
Additional documentation comes from Syria.
In recent days, media affiliated with the rebels in Syria have claimed the bodies of 55 Syrian fighters were returned from Azerbaijan through Turkish territory after being killed in heavy fighting in the Caucasus.
According to allegations made on social media, the fighters were hastily buried at night in the back, apparently with the aim of not revealing their arrival.
The news in the Arabic language "Jesser Peres" published that more than eighty Syrian fighters had already been killed in the fighting and that they had been brought back to Syrian territory in meat refrigerators.
According to the website, the fighters are part of a force of 150 fighters sent by al-Amshat, a rebel group operating under the auspices of the Turkish army in Syria.
Other fighters came from organizations such as Aharar al-Sham, an umbrella organization of several Islamist groups, including Salafist organizations.
Swords to rent
But what convinces the Syrian jihadists, Sunnis in their religion, to go to war between two nation-states, one Shiite and the other Nurit, in which they have no part?
According to experts, the biggest temptation is money.
The vast majority of the fighters come from areas occupied by the Assad regime and cannot return to their homes.
They are now trying to find a way to make money in parts of northern Syria that are still ruled by the rebels, where the economy is shattered and the population is at risk of malnutrition and disease.
According to various testimonies, the Turkish contractors are offering the fighters close to a thousand euros a month, a huge sum in terms of the ruined Syrian economy, in order for them to fight alongside the Azeri army.
A similar arrangement is also given to Turkish troops in Libya, but for much lower sums.
International condemnation and denial from Baku
Not to mention the first front on which Erdogan, a close ally of the Azerbaijani government, makes use of Syrian fighters from the various rebel organizations.
Turkey sent thousands of troops to the aid of the pro-Turkish government in Libya, which was on the verge of defeat to General Khalifa Hunter in the country's bloody civil war.
The idea that Azerbaijan, a secular, Shiite Muslim nation, with a large army in which huge budgets have been invested for decades, would like the help of warriors with dubious reputations and connections to Sunni terrorist organizations who do not speak the local language, seems unfounded at first, but it manages with policy The outside of Ankara and its aspiration to buy for itself the status of a world power.
This fact has not gone unnoticed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been exchanging verbal blows with the Turkish president over the past few months on a variety of issues, including Turkey's expansionist aspirations in the Mediterranean.
Macron condemned the Turkish intervention.
"These jihadists are under surveillance and their identities are known," the French president said last week.
Sources in Russia, an ally of Armenia, also condemned the manpower shipments, which were estimated by the country's media at no less than 4,000 fighters, a larger number than reported elsewhere.
Baku rejects the allegations out of hand.
The Azeris denied the reports, which appeared even before the outbreak of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Fried Schaefeb, chairman of the Baku Institute for Foreign Relations, told Israel today that these were ridiculous allegations designed to back up Armenian propaganda.
We do not lack manpower, in terms of population we are five times the Armenians.
Our army is significantly larger and also lacks combat experience.
"Armenia is forcibly trying to tie Turkey to a military operation that is ours alone."
But the evidence is growing in the other direction.
Videos on social media show convoys of vans loaded with Arabic-speaking fighters, on the tidy streets of rural Azerbaijan.
And while one can certainly wonder what Baku is trying to achieve by using fighters with dubious reputations and no experience in the type of fighting that characterizes Nagorno Karbach, which includes very intense and accurate use of modern weapons, Erdogan's dreams of increasing his control over the Turkish-speaking world in Central Asia are well known.