Azerbaijan Bolstered By Turkish Trained Jihadist Militants in Fight Against Armenia - Reports

As Armenia and Azerbaijan enter their second day of open hostilities, the latter party has been bolstered by a sizeable contingent of jihadist militants formerly based in Syria’s Idlib province, which have been dispatched by Turkey to assist the Soviet successor state against its Iranian-aligned neighbour. Idlib is reported by U.S. sources to be the largest Al Qaeda safe haven the world has seen since 2001, and militants based there have enjoyed massive material support from Turkey which directly intervened in support of the Al Qaeda affiliated groups in February to prevent the internationally recognised government of Syria from recapturing the territory. Turkey has since relied on jihadist militias two support its power projection operations overseas - notably in Libya where they have been deployed to engage the Egyptian and Russian backed Libyan National Army. The deployment of jihadist groups to Azerbaijan thus represents the latest case of Ankara relying on extremist islamist militants to further its foreign policy objectives. 

The first reports of a transfer of jihadists by Turkey from Syria to Azerbaijan came in mid-September from a number of European and Arab news outlets, but have been denied by the government in Baku. The number of militants dispatched were reportedly around 4000, with the jihadists directly taking part in clashes with Armenian forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. A number of reporters covering the recent conflict in favour of Azerbaijan notably also remarked on the presence of ‘Syrian Rebels’ who were present on the frontlines. Azerbaijan has long been a major defence client of both Turkey and Israel and maintained close ties with the Western world, while Armenia has received support from Iran and has recently invested in advanced Russian military hardware. Russia is a leading arms supplier to both countries and is officially neutral in the conflict, although Azerbaijan also relies heavily on Israeli and Turkish arms including attack drones to counter Armenian forces.