Turkey has sent the Syrian militants who stayed in Nagorno-Karabakh after fighting for Azerbaijan against Armenian forces in the 2020 war into Ukraine to fight against Russia, RIA Novosti reported citing a source from the Syrian opposition.
“Turkey sent more than 2000 militants from Syria to Nagorno-Karabakh to participate in the combat operations against Armenia in 2020, and the majority of these militants stayed there after the military operations ended. Turkey again sent some of these militants from Syria and other countries from Karabakh into Ukraine to participate in the conflict from the Ukrainian side,” the source told RIA Novosti.
According to the source, the militants were signed up into the foreign legion of the Ukrainian military.
Turkey recruited and sent foreign mercenaries – over 2500 - to fight for Azerbaijan against Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, 300 of them died. About 1000 Syrian mercenaries who survived the war did not leave Nagorno-Karabakh, the rest returned to Syria.