Foreign Mercenaries in Turkey’s Areas of Influence in Syria
A number of foreign mercenaries, including Chadians, are reportedly in Turkey’s zones of influence in Syria. Some are loyal to ISIS and are trying to make their way to Ukraine to fight the Russian army, despite repeated denials from the Turkish authorities.
Despite the talk of decreasing the rate of movement of foreign fighters and mercenaries fighting in northern Syria within various jihadist groups to Turkey and then to Ukraine, due to the tight security measures along the Turkish border, reports indicate that areas in northern Syria, especially Idlib, have become a playground for these foreign groups.
According to local sources in Idlib, Al Mayadeen reported that “there has been no movement of foreign militants recently from Idlib to Turkey, following the recent security measures.”
“Smuggling operations between the two areas have become more serious than before after people were killed by Turkish forces,” it said.
Al Mayadeen sources denied the presence of Chadian groups in Idlib, except for some individuals who were under the banner of ISIS and fled Libya in 2017, stressing that “the group is unknown in number, but it is no longer present on the battlefronts, staying in the areas of the Turkestan party in western Idlib.”
“The Chadian fighters refused to fight with HTS because their project was different, which is the establishment of a caliphate”, it said.
Russian and Syrian sources have previously reported recruiting Syrian and foreign fighters and mercenaries in northern Syria for the Ukrainian army against Russian forces as part of a settling of scores against Moscow, which backed Syrian forces in their victory over the armed opposition.
Recent media reports revealed that a group of foreign militants in the Al-Shughour and Latakia villages in northwestern Syria moved to Turkey and then to Ukraine with the aim of supporting mercenaries on the Ukrainian scene against Russian forces.
After the Russian invasion on February 24th, Ukrainian authorities opened the door for foreign fighters to join. Many foreign nationalities, including European ones, joined the Ukrainian army in the fighting, while other sources pointed to the presence of foreign fighters in the Russian army, especially those loyal to the Syrian regime.
In March, Sputnik reported that Ukrainian security service members, along with Turkish intelligence officers, visited northern Syria, particularly the towns of Afrin and Azaz, to discuss the recruitment of armed men for Ukraine’s regional defense.
The same sources said that the “Ukrainian-Turkish” security and intelligence group visited the base of the Thairun Armed Movement, which is part of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.
The security group met with armed groups such as the Sultan Murad Division, Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar in what was described as Turkey’s covert support for the Ukrainian efforts.
It appears that the changes that have taken place recently through the border control efforts by Turkey to prevent attacks by Kurdish forces, in addition to the differences between the Islamist forces that control Idlib province, especially Hayat Tahrir al-Sham with Ankara, due to the intentions of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the rapprochement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in addition to Russian pressures have pushed the Turkish side to prevent any attempt to send Syrian or foreign mercenaries to the Ukrainian arena.
Despite talk of a Russian-Turkish rapprochement and Turkish mediation to end the grain and energy crisis, Russian reports have for months spoken of covert Turkish support for Ukraine, including human and military support, with a fighter from units of the Donetsk People’s Republic reporting that former IS specialists from Syria or Turkey trained pro-Ukrainian fighters.
Turkey was involved in the transfer of Syrian fighters and mercenaries to Libya to fight against the Libyan National Army (LNA) amid international criticism.
