Turkey sends Syrian militants to Niger – Report
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkey has sent at least 1,000 militants of its affiliated armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), to Niger in the recent months, a report by the AFP said on May 16.
Speaking to the AFP, three militants of the SNA said they had enlisted for work in Niger with the Sultan Murad faction, one of Turkey’s prominent SNA factions in northern Syria.
Turkey exploits the bad living conditions in the areas it occupies in northern Syria and send the SNA militants to protect its interests in other countries in exchange for a monthly salary of about $1,500, according to a militant the AFP interviewed.
In 2020, Turkey recruited thousands of SNA militants and sent them to Libya to battle along the Government of National Accord against Libyan National Army under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
It also recruited the militants to fight in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan by offering financial inducements under the pretext of protecting public bases and installations there.
All the recruitment processes are completed through a Turkish Islamist firm of SADAT, the three militants told AFP, adding that they signed six-month contracts with SADAT at the headquarters of the Sultan Murad faction.
The SADAT firm was established in 2012 by Adnan Tanriverdi, former brigadier general at the Turkish forces, and is controlled by Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The firm is involved in several Arab and African countries.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense said SADAT sent teams to Libya to train Syrian fighters on behalf of Turkish-backed forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.