Turkey hiring Syrian rebels to fight Armenians for Azerbaijan, Guardian claims as Baku calls mercenary reports ‘nonsense’ — RT

 Rebels from Syria’s Idlib province are being recruited by Turkey to fight in Azerbaijan’s conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, just as it has done in Libya, the Guardian reported citing several of the militants.


Idlib is Syria’s northwestern province, and the last bastion of the Turkish-backed militants once hoping to effect regime change in Damascus. It is there the recruitment drive for Azerbaijan began a month ago, three rebels told the Guardian’s Bethan McKernan. Two brothers from Azaz said they had been summoned to a camp in Afrin on September 13 and told by a commander in the Sultan Murad Division that three- or six-month contracts were available “guarding observation posts and oil and gas facilities” in Azerbaijan for 7,000-10,000 Turkish lira a month.

That works out to roughly $900-1300 a month, and is a princely sum compared to the monthly wage of 450-550 Turkish lira a month ($57-70) that Ankara pays the militants to fight against the government of President Bashar Assad.