YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. A photo surfaced online showing the Turkish Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu shaking hands with the commander of the Sultan Murad division Fahim Issa.

American journalist Lindsey Snell posted the photo on Twitter and said that it was taken in al-Rai, Syria. The town known for being a recruitment center of mercenaries.

“Sultan Murad sent mercenaries to Karabakh and Libya. Their recruitment of minors led the US to put Turkey on a list of "countries that deploy child soldiers,”” Snell tweeted, referring to the latest US State Department report on Turkey using child soldiers.

Turkey recruited and sent Syrian mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan against Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war. Despite Ankara denying this, the Armenian authorities have presented numerous evidence proving the participation of the Syrian mercenaries from the Azeri side.

The Russian foreign intelligence service had also gathered information on Sultan Murad’s participation in the Karabakh war.

The President of France Emmanuel Macron also said that his intelligence agencies have information that Turkey is sending mercenaries to Azerbaijan to fight against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh.

Earlier in 2021, the Armenian authorities said that the investigation has revealed that Azerbaijan pre-planned the war back in June 2020 and recruited more than 2000 Syrian mercenaries and deployed them via Turkey. Azeri authorities transferred payments namely to the Suleyman Shah and Sultan Murad terror groups.

Audio recordings of the Sultan Murad fighters in Nagorno Karabakh were intercepted during the war.

Two Syrian mercenaries captured by the Armenian forces were subsequently sentenced to life in prison.