Last week independent reporter Lindsey Snell arrived in Armenia and visited Artsakh to continue the investigation on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The American reporter was one of the first to sign the alarm about Syrian militants fighting in Artsakh and up to the present she has been publishing new facts.

Snell, a 36-year-old year old journalist is originally from Daytona, Florida. She is a print and video journalist specializing in conflict and humanitarian crises. For several years, Snell has covered the Middle East and North Africa, especially Syria, Iraq, and Tunisia. She was once kidnapped by Turkish-backed terrorists in northern Syria and then thrown into a Turkish jail for two months after her escape from Syria. Currently journalism is a passion but not a fulltime job for Snell, she freelances as a journalist and confirms she doesn’t get paid for the work she does and she doesn’t even want to be paid.

Mediamax has met with Lindsey Snell in Yerevan and talked about her visit to Artsakh and the reports on Syrian militants before her departure.

Since July

I made plans to come to Armenia on the day the attack began. I immediately started looking for flights and applying for permissions and accreditations. My first flight was cancelled, it was Austrian Airlines from Vienna. Then the second flight was cancelled, then the third one, the fourth one. Air France was the only way to come here, I flew from Munich in the beginning of the last week.

Last week I visited Artsakh, where I met the minister of foreign affairs, the Ombudsman and the Defense army spokesman, as well as the civilians trapped in basements. I have published my work on The Investigative Journal.

Lindsey Snell

Photo: Mediamax

I was aware of the clashes in 2016, but I definitely became more interested in this topic since hearing about the transfer of Syrian mercenaries to Azerbaijan by Turkey. This was a rumor that dates back to July. These rumors really exploded a week before the actual deployment happened. Most people didn’t believe it, and there are still people who deny it, but obviously now we have France, America and Russia confirming that there are Syrian mercenaries fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Like in Libya

On 22 September, I made my first report about the fighters belonging to the Al-Hamza squadron that arrived in the capital, Baku, via Turkey.

People just absolutely thought it was crazy and untrue, but I have so many sources there and there are so many reports of it, they have no reason to lie, they have been honest and useful in the past, so it was very clear that it was a real thing.

Lindsey Snell

Photo: Mediamax

In Syria, I embedded with Syrian National Army for years, I know them personally and I kept in touch with them. The same thing happened in Libya, people thought it was absolutely crazy too. It echoes a lot with what happened in Libya, now there are more than 15 000 Syrian mercenaries still in Libya and there are no plans to move them out. They are very dangerous, they are remnants of HTS, former Al-Qaeda affiliate, they are remnants of ISIS. Basically, they are plaguing Libya, so the same thing is going to happen in another country.

Turkey has never publicly admitted that they sent Syrian mercenaries to Libya, the same thing will happen with Artsakh eventually. There were no international outcries when Erdogan sent so many mercenaries to Libya, they keep them there, this has been going on for almost a year now. It made sense that Erdogan would use them also in Artsakh.

Maybe after this, when Erdogan sends them to a new country, people will actually believe it.

They will never publicly admit

Turkey and Azerbaijan will continue to deny reports that Turkey has recruited militants from Syria to fight for Azerbaijan. Shortly after the rumors emerged about the transfer of Syrian mercenaries, Azerbaijan responded that reports of mercenaries were “misleading”. If it is “misleading”, it means it is not exactly what you think, but it is there, so there is some truth to it.

Lindsey Snell

Photo: Mediamax

At this point the evidence is almost undeniable, hundreds of mercenaries returned back to Syria and told openly what happened and why they stopped fighting, the videos of mercenaries have also been geolocated. But Turkey and Azerbaijan are never going to publicly admit it and no one is going to press them on this: the media freedom in Azerbaijan is still limited, and at this point the media freedom in Turkey is probably even worse.

Besides, this is a huge threat for the region as they can cross the borders. There were reports in Libya that some members of one of the worst factions, which are responsible for rape and murder in Syria, had actually managed to smuggle themselves to Italy.

They thought Karabakh is an island

The Syrian militants were actually told that they would be border guards, I don’t know if they actually believed this because they lied about what they would be doing in Libya as well.

I have reporting dating back to July that they even couldn’t pronounce Azerbaijan, they had no idea where it was. They had no idea about the Karabakh conflict: when the first ones were starting to arrive, one of them said that he believed that Karabakh was an island which somehow is surrounded by water.

Now they say it is unlike anything in Syria or Libya; heavier and more accurate weapons, much greater intensity, direct deliberate targeting of civilian areas.

Azerbaijan is using these mercenaries as shields, they go in front of them, and then Azeris move forward a little bit. This is why two factions refused to fight altogether and hundreds of them flew back to Syria - because they were just dying in such great numbers. This is part of Azerbaijani plan: if less of their people are dying, the people are not against the government, so they are still theoretically making a progress.

2,000 are on the way

The Syrian mercenaries are wearing Azerbaijani uniforms. They say that in Turkey they give them new clothes and take their old clothes, they also give them new haircuts. Usually in Syria they have long hair and beards, while here you see them looking like they work in a mall.

Amalie Khachatryan talks to Lindsey Snell

Photo: Mediamax

I know that they are now planning on moving out more than 2,000 mercenaries, it is unpredictable when they are going to come here because they go to Turkey first. They stay at military bases, military hotels for a while, and then they are sent in batches of 200, 300. It is probably around 50-100 that are here now. Supposedly 700 have returned back to Syria, and we have a lot of more dead, probably around 200.

Amalie Khachatryan

Photos: Gayane Yenokyan