\n Armenia and Azerbaijan have traded accusations of using foreign fighters, mostly from Syria, in the battle for Nagorno-Karabakh.\n<\/p>\n
\n Here is an overview:\n<\/p>\n
\n - Syrians in Azeri ranks? -\n<\/p>\n
\n From the onset of the clashes last Sunday, Armenia has accused Turkey of sending mercenaries from northern Syria to fight alongside the Azeris.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Friday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told French newspaper Le Figaro that Turkey had \"transported thousands of mercenaries and terrorists\" to Azerbaijan from northern Syria.\n<\/p>\n
\n Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call, expressed \"serious concern\" over the reported \"involvement in military action of militants of illegal armed groups from the Middle East\", the Kremlin said.\n<\/p>\n
\n French President Emmanuel Macron also weighed in, demanding that Turkey explain what he said was the arrival of jihadist fighters in Azerbaijan.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"A red line has been crossed, which is unacceptable,\" said Macron.\n<\/p>\n
\n There has been no official comment from Turkey which backs Baku in the conflict, but Azerbaijan has denied the reports.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"There is yet another disinformation piece against Azerbaijan,\" Hikmet Hajiyev, a presidential foreign affairs aide, said in a news conference.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We completely reject it, Azerbaijan doesn't need any foreign fighters because we have professional armed forces and we also have enough reserve forces.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n But the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 850 pro-Turkey Syrian fighters have been sent to Azerbaijan since last week, and at least 28 of them killed in combat.\n<\/p>\n
\n Relatives of three fighters confirmed to AFP they had been killed, while social media users shared pictures of four fighters who died in clashes.\n<\/p>\n
\n - What affiliations? -\n<\/p>\n
\n According to Macron, intelligence reports indicate 300 fighters drawn from \"jihadist groups\" from the Syrian city of Aleppo have passed through Gaziantep in Turkey en route for Azerbaijan.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"These fighters are known, tracked and identified,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Observatory says the Syrian fighters are members of pro-Turkish armed groups mostly active in the northern Afrin region which Ankara seized from Kurds in 2018.\n<\/p>\n
\n They are mostly from the ethnic Turkmen minority living in Syria, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.\n<\/p>\n
\n They fight under the banners of three groups in the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army -- Sultan Murad Brigades, Suleiman Shah and Liwa Al-Muntasser bi Allah.\n<\/p>\n
\n But SNA spokesman Youssef Hammoud, in a statement sent to AFP, denied the involvement of his forces in Azerbaijan.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last month, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said armed groups in the area of northern Syria controlled by Turkey may have committed war crimes and other violations of international law.\n<\/p>\n
\n Aymenn Jawad Tamimi, an academic and expert on armed groups in Syria, said the fighters deployed were a mixed bag.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Those going to fight are the same types of people who have been recruited to fight in Turkey's intervention in Libya,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n They are a \"mixture of rebel veterans and newer recruits\" and \"some of these rebels previously received Western backing\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - Foreigners on Armenian side? -\n<\/p>\n
\n Baku says Armenians from the diaspora have been deployed.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Armenians from Syria and Lebanon are being deployed to Armenia and they are in the ranks of the Armenian armed forces fighting against Azerbaijan,\" Hajiyev said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Observatory said hundreds of Armenians from Syria have joined the battle, but an Armenian official in northern Syria denied the report.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lebanese Armenian MP Hagop Pakradounian, for his part, said: \"Armenian political parties have no intention of sending young people (to Karabakh), there is no such organised action.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n burs-lar\/hkb\/hc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Armenia and Azerbaijan have traded accusations of using foreign fighters, mostly from Syria, in the battle for Nagorno-Karabakh. Here is an overview: - Syrians in Azeri ranks? - From the onset of the clashes last Sunday, Armenia has accused Turkey of sending mercenaries from northern Syria to fight alongside the Azeris. On Friday, Armenian Prime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-45563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n