Yezidi fighters wounded in Armenia-Azerbaijan battle, confirms MP in Yerevan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A number of Yezidis fighting for Armenia against Azerbaijan in the contested region of Nagorno Karabakh have been wounded in battle, according to a member of Armenian parliament.

Breaking out on Sunday, the three-day long battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the ethnically Armenian-majority territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is the heaviest since 2016, with reports of dozens of deaths and hundreds wounded.

“Many Yezidis are wounded in this battle,” Yezidi MP Rostam Bakoyan told Rudaw from Yerivan via Skype on Tuesday.

"There are no deaths among the Yezidi fighters," Bakoyan said, adding that most are in good health condition.

According to Bakoyan, 90 Armenian and more than 560 Azeri soldiers have been killed in the clashes since Sunday. Azerbaijan says 10 civilians have been killed, with an additional 30 wounded but has not said how many troops have died.

The latest clashes have raised fears of a new all-out war between the two countries which have been locked for decades in a territorial dispute over the Armenia-backed breakaway region.

Ethnic Armenian separatists seized the region from Baku in a war during the 1990s that claimed 30,000 lives.

Peace talks have been largely stalled since a 1994 ceasefire agreement, with the last big push for a peace deal collapsing in 2010.

Bakoyan says his country has not initiated the war with Baku, accusing Turkey of sending in Syrian opposition fighters from northern Syria to support Azerbaijan in the ongoing battle.

"Turkey is backing Azerbaijan by sending in terrorists of opposition from Syria and Turkish soldiers to join the Azerbaijan forces," Bakoyan claimed, adding they have evidence of videos and photographs showing the deployment of Syrian fighters to the battlefields.

Bakoyan went on to add that based on their information, each Syrian opposition fighter is being paid $1,500 a month to take part in this battle.

Reuters earlier in the day, quoting two Syrian rebels who have joined the Azeri soldiers, reported that Turkey is deploying Syrian fighters to help ally Azerbaijan.

“I didn’t want to go, but I don’t have any money. Life is very hard and poor,” Reuters quoted a fighter who had fought in Syria for Ahrar al-Sham, a group that Turkey has supported, as saying.

Both fighters confirmed to Reuters they had been told by their Syrian brigade commanders they would earn around $1,500 a month.

The fighter said he had arranged his assignment with an official from the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in Afrin, a region of northwest Syria seized by Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies two years ago.

Azerbaijan is denying reports of the foreign recruitment, describing it as “complete nonsense”.

“Our armed forces have more than enough personnel and reserve forces," Hikmat Hajiyev, a foreign policy aide to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has said.

Yezidi fighters wounded in Armenia-Azerbaijan battle, confirms MP in Yerevan

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