Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict | As more fighters return to Syria, Turkey sends new batch to Azerbaijan
240 Syrian mercenaries killed so far in Nagorno-Karabakh battles
SOHR continues monitoring and tracking Turkey’s transfer of Syrian mercenaries to Azerbaijan. Reliable SOHR sources have confirmed that a new batch of nearly 230 Syrian fighters arrived in Azerbaijan to take part in the ongoing military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh region on the side of Azerbaijan against Armenia. Meanwhile, at least 22 fighters have fled the fierce battles in Azerbaijan and returned to Syria.
As a new batch of fighters arrived in Azerbaijan, the total number of Syrian fighters thrown into Nagorno-Karabakh battles has risen to at least 2,580, of whom there were342 fighters returned to Syria after they had given up and forgone their payments.
On the other hand, Syrian Observatory activists have documented the death of nine Syrian mercenaries in Nagorno-Karabakh battles in the past few hours, bringing the total number of fatalities among the Turkish-backed factions since the Turkish government sent them to the frontlines in late September to at least 240 dead, including 183 fighters whose bodies were brought to Syria while the rest of bodies remain in Azerbaijan. Moreover, the Armenian forces have captured at least three Syrian fighters.
It is worth noting that Turkey has been struggling to recruit more fighters to send to “Nagorno-Karabakh” region, as a large part of the fighters refuse to fight alongside Azerbaijani forces due to the “sectarian” factor and the heavy human losses among the mercenaries sent to fight in Azerbaijan.
It is also worth noting that some of fighters sent to Azerbaijan were not even aware that the Azerbaijani forces belong to the Shiite community, and discovering this fact prompted many fighters to return to Syria just after they had known, not to mention the difficult fighting conditions.