Turkey is sending mercenaries to Azerbaijan to help it in its border conflict with Armenia that has brought both countries to the brink of war.
Clashes broke out yesterday in Nagorno-Karabakh, the border region of Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenia since 1991.
The fighting continued overnight, killing at least 39 people. Both countries have declared martial law, and President Aliyev of Azerbaijan today ordered the partial mobilisation of his armed forces.
Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of violating a ceasefire in the area, which Armenia denies.
The present fighting represents the most serious flare-up for four years and it is feared that Russia and Turkey could be drawn into a proxy war.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian region that broke away from Azerbaijan in the late 1980s, when both countries were part of the Soviet Union. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
Armenia, however, claims that Azerbaijan has been bought in heavy weaponry from Turkey and shipped in fighters from Syria in preparation for an attack.
Turkey is a staunch ally of Azerbaijan: both are majority-Muslim countries and Azeris speak a dialect of Turkish.
The two countries held joint military drills last month, and Turkey has transferred rocket-launchers into Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave between Turkey and Armenia.
President Erdogan was quick to throw his support behind Baku yesterday, calling Armenia “the biggest threat to regional peace.” Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister of Armenia, retaliated with a call to the international community to block Turkey from becoming involved in the conflict.
A former rebel who fought in the Syrian civil war told The Times that 150-200 of his colleagues had been recruited by Turkey to fight on the Azerbaijani side.
Mohammad Mahmoud al-Sourani, now a member of the Turkish-backed “Syrian National Army” in Idlib province, said he had registered to go.
“The Turkish army didn’t force anyone to register,” he said. “But it’s the side in control of this area [the Syrian province of Idlib], which is pretty much starving, and recruitment was linked to the desperate need for money of young men and fathers.
“Are they mercenaries? Yes, but I can’t blame the men who went to Azerbaijan because I know they had to do that due to the bad economic situation.”
He said there had been no extra training, as the men were regarded as battle-hardened from years of conflict against pro-Assad forces, including Russians. The contracts were for either three or six months. The fighters were told they would be used as guards, police officers and fighters on the front lines. He said they would be paid up to 10,000 Turkish lira (about £1,000) compared with a salary of 200 lira in the SNA.
In the end Mr Sourani had pulled out of going.
“One of the reasons why I changed my mind is that we have fought the Shia militias for ten years here in Syria, so why would we go fight for the mostly Shia Azerbaijan now?” he said.
“I want Turkey to stop taking advantage of our poverty and I ask our Syrian leaders to be aware of what is happening. Syrian men are being exploited. Syrians are seekers after peace not war.”
He said that there was no contact with the fighters who went in Azerbaijan because they were not allowed to keep their phones.
It is the second time that Turkey, which has expanded its influence over the remains of the Free Syrian Army, has sent Syrians under its command to other regional conflicts.
Ankara is also believed to have sent about 10,000 Syrian rebel fighters to Libya, where they are fighting on behalf of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord.
Syrians who have been fighting for President Assad have been seconded to the other side of Libya’s war, to support the Libyan National Army under Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s.