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There has been fierce fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the last week. The photo was taken in Stepanakert on Sunday. Photo: DAVID GHAHRAMANYAN / NKR INFOCENTER / PAN PHOTO / NKR INFOCENTER / PAN PHOTO
Syrian rebels desperate to earn money for the family are fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, according to the AFP news agency.
A 26-year-old Syrian tells the news agency by phone that he has signed up for three months and expects to make $ 2,000 a month, 80 times more than he makes now.
After Armenia and Azerbaijan began fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area a week ago, at least 200 people were killed, including many civilians.
Turkey openly supports its ally Azerbaijan and is accused by Armenia of sending Syrian fighters to Baku, accusations also made by France and rejected by Azerbaijan.
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But AFP has spoken with several Syrian opposition figures in Aleppo and Idlib who say they are preparing to travel to the Caucasus. They also spoke with someone who was already in the conflict zone.
Money for wife and children
The 26-year-old, with whom AFP spoke from a camp in northern Syria that is under Turkish control, said he wanted to go to Karabakh to raise money for his wife and children.
– We lost our villages and our houses and we have nothing left to eat, said the 26-year-old who has been a warrior for five years.
“I am waiting for my turn to travel to Azerbaijan to save some money and start a business when I get home,” he said.
He and his family fled their home earlier this year after a violent offensive by government forces. He says his income has been reduced to next to nothing and that he only receives $ 25 a month from the rebel group.
He has heard of Syrians killed in Nagorno-Karabakh and understands that travel is dangerous, but says he has no alternative.
1200 instead
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), based on a variety of sources in Syria, says 1,200 Syrian fighters have already traveled to Azerbaijan via Turkey, and hundreds more are ready to travel.
The first came even before the war started, with the belief that they would be guards at the oil facilities and border guards.
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SOHR says that at least 64 Syrian pro-Turkish fighters have died in fighting since last Sunday, and relatives of three of them confirmed to AFP that they had been killed.
Turkey has admitted to sending Syrian fighters to Libya, but has not publicly commented on Syrian mercenaries in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan, for its part, accuses Armenia of having recruited fighters from the great Armenian diaspora around the world for the separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Support Turkey
A 38-year-old man in Idlib tells AFP that it was not his turn to be sent to Libya and that he has now been asked to prepare to go to Azerbaijan.
He says he receives much better pay for going to Azerbaijan than he receives from Turkey fighting the Russians and the Syrian regime, but that money is not the only motivation.
– We support our ally Turkey because they were with us against Russia and they are fighting for Syria. If Turkey loses and is forced to hand over our territories to the regime, we will never go home, he says.
