Yerevan /Mediamax/. Asia Times reports new evidence of presence of Syrian mercenaries in the ongoing war in Artsakh.

In the article “Turkey deploys Syrian mercenaries to Karabakh war”, Asia Times quotes of these mercenaries, member of Malik Shah brigade named Khaled.

Khaled has told Asia Times that a group of 25 militants left for Azerbaijan two weeks before the Karabakh assault started. “On September 14, we left Syria to Kilis area (southern Turkey) by bus. Then we were transferred from Kilis to Gaziantep by car, flown to Istanbul in a civilian plane, and then to Azerbaijan,” he said.

20-year-old Khaled is originally from Homs province. He is now displaced with his mother and younger siblings in a camp in the northern countryside of Aleppo. Khaled was initially preparing to fight in Libya, but the brigade leadership told him that deployments there have stopped. Instead, he signed up to go to Azerbaijan for USD 1,500 a month.

Asia Times has also talked with Ahmad, a 42-year-old fighter with the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad faction. Ahmad has said that he was also motivated to fight in Azerbaijan by the salary to feed his 5 children. He has told he left for Turkey from Aleppo with a group of 50 men on September 16, but the Turkish military committee in Kilis excluded him from going to Azerbaijan as he did not meet the age requirements.