Armenian MoD calls prisoner of war a Syrian mercenary

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Nagorno-Karabakh posted a video in which a prisoner of war identified himself as a mercenary trained in Turkey. A native of the Syrian city of Hama has been taken captive, reports Shushan Stepanyan, the press secretary for the Ministry of Defence of Armenia. The Azerbaijani authorities have not commented on the above report, but the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor has accused Armenia of using mercenaries from Georgia, France, the United States, and Belarus.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 27, Rafael Vardanyan, the director of the Armenian Investigating Committee, claimed that the Turkish military personnel and militants from Syria and Pakistan arrived in the Karabakh conflict zone. In turn, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev claimed that the Armenian military personnel stayed in Nagorno-Karabakh thanks to the supply of Russian weapons.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Defence Army took captive a mercenary fighting on the side of Azerbaijan. Today, on her Facebook page, Shushan Stepanyan, the press secretary for the Ministry of Defence of Armenia, has reported that Mekhred Muhammad Alshkher, a prisoner of war, is a native of the Syrian city of Hama.

During an interrogation, Mekhred Muhammad Alshkher said that on October 19, he arrived at the frontline via Turkey, together with other 250 mercenaries. According to him, the amount of 2000 US dollars had been promised to each of them, but they did not receive any money. After being wounded, he was left on the battlefield by his colleagues. The prisoner of war has noted that the Azerbaijani military personnel send them forward, and they themselves follow in the second or third line, the press service for the Nagorno-Karabakh MoD reports today.

Today, the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan has also accused Armenia of using mercenaries. Azerbaijan has put on the international wanted list citizens of Georgia, France, the United States, and Belarus involved in the hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on the side of Armenia, Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Kyamran Aliev reports today.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 30, 2020 at 04:47 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.