Turkey has denied sending Syrian fighters to aid Azerbaijan, its longtime ally. The deployment of Syrian mercenaries has repeated a pattern from Libya, where Turkey and Russia are fighting on opposite sides of the civil war. Most of the Syrian fighters in Libya have been hired by Turkey, which sponsors militias inside Syria opposed to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A Kremlin-backed security firm operating in Libya, for its part, has brought over Syrian fighters allied with Assad. ADADErdogan, speaking to members of his political party Wednesday, again denied that Turkey was sending Syrian fighters to the war.

Source: Washington Post October 14, 2020 09:00 UTC