Prosecutor's Office Publishes Excerpts from Captured Mercenary's Testimony

The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia has published new factual data regarding the presence of mercenaries from Azerbaijan.

Below is the statement from the Prosecutor's Office:

"As previously reported, on November 1, 2020, servicemen of the Artsakh Defense Army discovered a citizen of the Syrian Arab Republic, Youssef El Abed El Haji, born in 1988, from the village of Ziadia in Idlib province, who participated in military operations unleashed against the Republic of Artsakh as part of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. He was arrested on November 2, 2020, on suspicion of committing crimes provided for in Articles 389, 390 (part 1, point 1, and part 3, point 1), and 395 (part 3) of the RA Criminal Code.

During the preliminary investigation of the corresponding criminal case, new factual data were obtained regarding the presence of mercenaries recruited from other countries, particularly from Syria, in terrorist groups within the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, and their direct involvement in military operations. Specifically, according to the testimony of Youssef El Abed El Haji, an individual named Abu Ahmad offered him money to go to Azerbaijan for a three-month military training, promising a salary of $2,000 per month.

The recruitment was conducted from various regions of Syria, including Sarafin, Saham, and Al Ziedieh, where the recruits were warned not to bring identification documents or mobile phones. They were transported through the Bab Al Salam checkpoint in Syria, which, according to the Syrian mercenary's testimony, was under the control of Abu Hamza and his militants.

From hundreds of individuals gathered from different parts of Syria by Abu Hamza's brother, Seyfi, about 500 individuals aged 20 to 40 were recruited, who were informed beforehand that after going to Azerbaijan, no one would be allowed to return until the end of their term.

The final group of 500 individuals was taken without any verification of their identification documents by the Turkish border guards through the aforementioned checkpoint at the Syria-Turkey border, placed on buses, and transported to one of the Turkish civilian airports with the escort of Turkish soldiers. From there, they were transferred by a Turkish-flagged airplane to another civilian airport, after which they were again placed on an Azerbaijani-flagged passenger plane and transported to Azerbaijan's civilian airport.

There, they were greeted by soldiers in Turkish military uniforms and Azerbaijani armed forces, and again without verifying their identity, they were taken by buses to a military unit where both Azerbaijani and Turkish armed forces personnel were present. In this military unit, they were given ID tags, supplied with light and dark blue uniforms, and weapons, including knives. Three days later, the mercenaries were moved to another location.

According to the obtained data, the leader of this group of mercenaries was an individual named Sheikh Ibrahim, who moved them to another military unit where they encountered another 500 Syrian Arabs, as well as Turkish and Azerbaijani soldiers, all of whom had come to fight for money. In this unit, they were divided into 10 groups, the composition and number of which were determined by Abu Hamza, who was the main commander of the unit and the mercenaries transported from Syria to Azerbaijan.

He instructed them to not spare any Armenians during their attacks, to "slaughter" and kill everyone. Such instructions were also received from Turkish and Azerbaijani military personnel present in the unit. According to Youssef El Abed El Haji, they were promised a payout of $100 for each head of an Armenian they severed.

On the seventh day of their stay in this military unit, early in the morning at 4 AM, they were relocated to the contact line between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, where they were ordered by Sheikh Ibrahim to attack a nearby Armenian village, capture it, and behead all civilians and soldiers present there. However, during the attack, they came under fire from the Armenian armed forces and fled, leaving behind 15 dead.

During this operation, the aforementioned individual was wounded and remained in the field for three days until he was captured by the Armenian armed forces.

The above factual data, combined with other evidence, confirms the existence of a concrete criminal scheme involving the mass recruitment of mercenaries in various locations in Syria for the purpose of participating in military operations against the Republic of Artsakh as part of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in exchange for financial compensation, as well as the involvement of the Turkish military in transporting them to Azerbaijan and ensuring their participation in operations that were fundamentally of a terrorist nature.