The mercenaries who were sent to Azerbaijan to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) have not yet returned to Syria; moreover, there are rumors that more militants will move to the region. American independent journalist Lindsey Snell, who actively covered Turkey’s sending of mercenaries and militants to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone during the recent second Artsakh War, wrote about this on Twitter.

“The families of Syrian mercenaries are not going to be shipped to Azerbaijan. Imagine the logistics of this. The Syrian fighters aren’t allowed out without supervision. Most don’t have access to a smartphone. This isn’t even a rumor among the mercenaries!

SNA [i.e., Syrian National Army] sources say the Syrians are still in Azerbaijan. There are talks of sending more (fighters). Rumors as to why: defense of certain points, help with Turkish bases in the long term. But it could just be that their presence is lucrative for Turkey…they’re paid per head,” Snell tweeted.

On November 9, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on a complete cessation of hostilities— which Azerbaijan had launched on September 27—in and around Artsakh. Accordingly, Russian peacekeepers are deployed in the region to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities.