The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta today reports that its special corresondent has revealed the details of recruiting and sending foreign mercenaries to the Karabakh conflict zone.

Wadih El-Hayek, in an "exclusive" for the paper, writes that his source in the Syrian town of Idlib, on the Turkish border, says that a Syrian of Turkmen origin (Turkoman) named Seif Abu Bakr is directly involved in the registration of mercenaries.

The author writes that Abu Bakr is a recruiter for the Khamzat brigade, which is fighting in the Free Syrian Army (the FSA is closely cooperating with Turkey).

Those wishing to go to fight in a new war are registered in a small office in the village of Afrin (Idlib province).

El-Hayek writes that according to his source, 700 to 1000 militants have been sent to Azerbaijan to protect gas and oil pipelines. 

El-Hayek's source says the fighters, disguised in civilian clothes, are smuggled into Turkey and board planes in Gaziantep for Istanbul. They are then flown to Baku via Georgian airspace.

The author writes that the mercenaries are offered monthly salaries of US$1,800 and Turkish citizenship. If killed, their families receive a one-time payment of $30,000.

The author concludes by saying: “According to classified information from the Lebanese Ministry of Internal Affairs, over the past few days about 500 local citizens, ethnic Armenians, have left the country to enter the battlefield in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Photo credit AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE