Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Concerned as Turkey Transfers Al Qaeda-Linked Militants to Azerbaijan

Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin has expressed serious concerns regarding the transfers of Al Qaeda affiliated jihadist militants to Central Asia, following widespread reports that Turkey was facilitating these transfers to support Azeri forces on the battlefield in the Nagorno-Karabakh Region. According to the director, the number of jihadists deployed already reached the thousands, with the militants expecting to receive payment for their involvement in the campaign against Armenian forces. "The flaring up armed confrontation in Karabakh, like a magnet, attracts militants from various international terrorist structures,” Naryshkin warned. “We cannot but be concerned that Transcaucasia is capable of becoming a new springboard for international terrorist organisations, from where militants can subsequently infiltrate into states adjacent to Azerbaijan and Armenia, including Russia… According to the information available in the SVR, mercenaries from the international terrorist organisations fighting in the Middle East, in particular [such as] Jabhat al-Nusra, Firkat al-Hamza and Sultan Murad.”

Reports have been widespread from the outset of the Armenian-Azeri conflict that Turkey was facilitating the transfer of jihadist militants, who are currently entrenched in Syria’s Idlib province in their tens of thousands and receiving considerable illegal Turkish support, to Azerbaijan. The Turkish armed forces notably directly intervened in Idlib in February and March to prevent Syria from expelling Al Qaeda linked forces and regaining its territory, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledging that the illegal Turkish military presence in Idlib will remain so long as the current internationally recognised government of Syria remains in power. Turkey has openly worked towards imposing a change in government on its neighbour for almost a decade since 2011. Under Turkish protection, Idlilb is today considered by U.S. intelligence to be the largest Al Qaeda safe haven the world has seen since 2001. Turkey has strongly supported Azerbaijan’s offensive into the Armenian controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region, and it remains to be seen to what extent Turkish-backed jihadists will play a role in the conflict and whether Russia, officially a neutral party, will take action to ensure their expulsion.