Corruption, exploitation mark Turkey’s program of Syrian “mercenaries”
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A report released by The National Interest bitterly revealed how Syrian opposition militants were trapped into fighting abroad supporting Ankara’s allies in Libya and Azerbaijan.
The bitter reality which the report discoursed on shows when the Syrian conflict went frozen, these fighters were needed elsewhere.
In 2020, Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli was under attack by forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the ruler of east Libya and head of the Libyan National Army (LNA). However, instead of sending troops to the help of Fayez al-Sarraj, Ankara had another plot to play.
The Turkish intelligence (MIT) were active in recruiting Syrian militants to be sent to the frontlines in Libya.
Receiving pompous promises on return and more appeasing ones for families’ members in case of death, the reality abroad was different.
On arrival, “Syrian mercenaries”, the report said, “found themselves trapped in unwelcomed territories.” In addition, they become easy preys to the high technological precision strikes.
The report cites Ahmad who went to the Libyan capital and returned with a shattered pelvis receiving only a “quarter of the $10,000 owed.”
Ahmad is not an isolated case. As the war was becoming more ravaging, more mercenaries were wanted abroad. No restrictions were put on the ‘number’ or the ‘age’ of the militants. It was a profitable trade for commanders.
Saif Abu Bakr, a leader of the Turkish-backed al-Hamzat Division, the notorious unit for its breaches and crimes against the Syrian Kurds, more specifically in Afrin, was among those recruiters who was pervaded with corruption.
“The mercenaries abu Bakr recruits are overwhelmingly young men with no income and few prospects for employment,” the report added.
Demand was high for fighting men to be sent to the rescue of Ankara’s allies. Strikingly, Kurdish detainees held in prisons run by al-Hamzat Division were offered the choice to be released on condition of fighting for Ankara’s allies or to remain locked up. “Many Kurds reluctantly took the offer,” the report noted.
The case was not different in Azerbaijan which received much importance to the Turks due to lingual, cultural and historical roots. “The Turks viewed the Azeris as brothers, and their support for Azerbaijan was ideological, unlike their support for the GNA in Libya, which was contractual and based on geopolitical interests.” However, corruption remained a common ground in either cases.
Hassan, a young man from Aleppo, fought for months in Azerbaijan, after being shot by a sniper he returned home. As many others, Hassan received just a fraction of his owed salary.
“While corruption was the sharing denominator by Syrian opposition commanders of the program drafted by the Turkish intelligence services, Syrian mercenaries found themselves under-equipped and victimized in both cases.”
The report shows how “Syrian mercenaries” were trapped sentimentally by the Turkish intelligence; once they were told that they were engaged in a religious fighting, and another the war was an ethnical one.