BBC Arabic interviewed Wednesday one of the Syrian mercenaries who were sent by Turkey to fight in the Azerbaijan army against Armenians.
Syrian mercenary Abdullah – a pseudonym at his request— told BBC that he accepted a job in Azerbaijan for 2,000 USD a month to improve his and his family’s living conditions, but he did not know what was waiting for him there.
“We were transferred to the airport in Antep in southern Turkey, where we took a flight of one hour and forty minutes to Istanbul airport, and then we were transferred via Azeri Airlines to Azerbaijan, where we found ourselves at a military post on the border,” he added.
The mercenary pointed out that they loaded them into troop carriers when news of the outbreak of war between the Azeris and Armenians arrived.
Abdullah noted that they were dressed in the uniform of the Azerbaijani army and given a Kalashnikov.
“Most of the people here are poor civilians who wanted money and were not soldiers,” he added.
The mercenary continued: “When the vehicle stopped, we were surprised to find that we were in the line of fire. We did not even know where the enemy was,”.
“When the clashes began, one of the young mercenaries started to cry and wanted to go back, but at that moment a bomb exploded, killing four Syrians, and injuring three others”, added Abdullah.
He stated that 10 Syrians were also killed, and 70 others injured, however, they did not receive a proper medical aid.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have strongly denied recruiting mercenaries and sending them to Karabakh region. Azerbaijan became the new destination for the Syrian mercenaries who were recruited by Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and employed them in his battles in Syria and Libya.
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