IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – After paying amounts of money to Turkish officers and leaders of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), the 27-year-old Osama Haj Suleiman, a pseudonym for a militant of Suleiman Shah faction known as al-Amshat, and 35 other militants arrived in Idlib, northwest Syria, coming from Libya through Turkish territory.
Militants of the SNA, whom Turkey sent to Libya, that have recently returned to Syria’s northwest said they paid money, sometimes over $1,000, in order to be allowed to return to the opposition-held areas in Idlib and the northern countryside of Aleppo.
For a year, Turkey has contributed to the recruitment of Syrians to fight alongside the forces of the Government of National Accord against the Russian-backed forces of Field Marshal Haftar by offering financial incentives.
Turkey sent thousands of the SNA militants to Libya to battle against Field Marshal Haftar in turn for wages of more than $3,000.
In July 2020, the Pentagon mentioned that “Turkey sent about 4,000 Syrian mercenaries to Libya at the beginning of the year, while 300 fighters arrived to Libya in April.”
After the military operation in Libya ended, Turkey kept dozens of sites in Libya as military bases for it guarded by SNA militants.
However, after decreasing wages of the Syrian militants to less than $300, their conditions deteriorated and Turkey have banned them from returning to Syria except for severe illness conditions, according to Syrian militants in Libya.
Pay to be returned
In mid-2020, Haj Suleiman and more than 75 others left Libya on a plane belonging to the Turkish army.
When he was in Libya, he was subjected to “harassments, extortion and fraud by leaders of al-Amshat,” he told North Press.
“When we arrived in Libya we realized that our return to Syria is impossible unless we pay large amounts of money,” he added.
“Some Turkish officers and SNA leaders say the one who pays money can return,” he noted.
Haj Suleiman paid $900 to the military leader of the group in al-Jufra Airbase “in order to book a flight to Turkey where I can reach Idlib.”
Officials of al-Amshat faction, “treated us very badly and sometimes they shot some young men in the foot,” he said.
There are more than 15,000 SNA militants in Libya all of them militants of Glory Corps, Sultan Murad Division, and al-Amshat, according to words of a SNA leader to North Press.
The Syrian militants are deployed in more than 30 Libya-based Turkish bases and military post including al-Watiya Air Base, Janzur, Tripoli International Airport, Jufra, Misurata Marine Terminal and Mitiga International Airport.
Unpaid salaries
Haj Suleiman noted that his entitlements, that he has not received yet in exchange for travelling to Libya, are over 20,000 Turkish lira (about $1,363.60) he has been deceived, as many other militants, by SNA leaders.
For more than four months, the command of al-Hamza faction in Libya have not paid Jamal al-Halabi and more than 75 others of his colleges their wages on the pretext that the Turks have not paid them yet.
As a result of not receiving their wages, they conducted a protest in their camp demanding their dues in addition to tackling the issue of bad treatment by the military officials, al-Halabi, who is still present in Libya, told North Press.
In the beginning, the command of the faction accepted the protesters’ demands and then it was revealed that it “was a fraud to silence them,” he added.
In the next day, security forces raided dormitories and drove those who were responsible for the protest to the prison where “they were violently tortured.”
“A leader called Abu Aysha shot three protesters in the feet and threatened to shoot them in the head if they protest again,” al-Halabi said.
Young men try to return to Syria, but they face difficulties especially that those responsible for the issue “demand more than $800 in turn for putting my name on the list of people allowed to return,” he added.
“We are like prisoners in this base which is similar to Sednaya Prison in Syria,” he noted.