News Every Day | 18 May 2024, 05:36

NATO Turkey is Sending Syrian Mercenaries to Niger: Armenians of Karabakh

NATO Turkey is Sending Syrian Mercenaries to Niger: Armenians of Karabakh

Kanako Mita, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

NATO Turkey is sending Syrian mercenaries to Niger. This is a similar move to when Turkey sent Syrian mercenaries to assist Azerbaijan in the ethnic cleansing of Armenian Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

NATO Turkey continues to occupy North Cyprus and parts of North Syria – while utilizing North Iraq to fight against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). Christians in North Cyprus – similar to the recently cleansed Armenian Christians of Nagorno-Karabakh – are expendable to NATO. Therefore, Turkey understands that no NATO criteria exist concerning democracy, human rights, and occupying foreign lands permanently (North Cyprus).

Rami Abdulrahman (Director of the Syrian Observatory) says, “We have confirmed that about 1,100 Syrian fighters have already been deployed to Niger since September of last year.”

It is another signal that Turkey is “a rogue NATO nation.” After all, Niger recently implemented the withdrawal of the armed forces of France and America.

Naturally, Niger is an independent nation. Also, the legacy of France is deemed detrimental to the ruling elites in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. However, it is strange that NATO Turkey is welcomed – and the political elites in Ankara care little for fellow NATO powers.

Voice of America reports, “Turkey has in the past deployed Syrian fighters to other conflict zones, including Azerbaijan and Libya, through SADAT International Defense Consultancy, a private military company that reportedly has close ties with the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

France 24 – concerning the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh said (2020), “… intelligence reports had established that 300 Syrian fighters drawn from “jihadist groups” from the Syrian city of Aleppo had passed through the Turkish city of Gaziantep en route for Azerbaijan.”

Turkey, under President Erdogan, is constantly involving itself in foreign conflicts. This includes the utilization of Islamist terrorists (mercenaries) from Syria in the conflicts of Libya, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenian Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh were cleansed by Azerbaijan with the assistance of Turkey on several fronts). NATO Turkey also attacks the Kurds in Iraq and Syria – often killing Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities.

The legacy of the Turks in history concerning the Armenians – and other regional Christians, including the Assyrians and Pontic Greeks – is pogroms, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the erasure of ancient Christianity (ancient Churches converted to mosques or destroyed along with dismantling architecture and the traces of indigenous Christianity).

President Emmanuel Macron of France said several years ago, “A red line has been crossed, which is unacceptable… I urge all NATO partners to face up to the behavior of a NATO member.”

Macron said this after French intelligence notified the leader of France that Turkey was sending Islamists and mercenaries to Nagorno-Karabakh to kill Armenian Christians. However, little was done to protect the Armenian Christians of this region. Therefore, Azerbaijan (with tacit support from Turkey) cleansed the Christians of this region last year.

Greece and France even signed a Defense Pact in 2021 aimed at their fellow NATO member.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece said, “For the first time it is clearly stipulated that there be military assistance in the event of a third party attacking one of the two states.”

Alluding to Turkey and its expansionist policies, he continued, “And we all know who is threatening whom with a casus belli (cause for war) in the Mediterranean.”

Mitsotakis said, “I agree with President Macron that we Europeans must stop naively accepting the tectonic shifts in the global geopolitical chessboard… Greece is the last Western garrison in the east. Geography dictates it, history confirms it, and civilization seals it.”

President Joe Biden of America – when Vice President in the Barack Obama administration – condemned Turkey’s role in Syria.

Biden said – similar to Macron – “What did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad — except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”

Associated Foreign Press reports (2022), “The heartland of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, Sinjar is frequently targeted by Turkish airstrikes against bases of Turkey’s separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).”

A Yazidi activist continued, “The international community also has a moral responsibility towards Yazidis and the people of Sinjar. It is both painful and illogical that these attacks go [unaddressed] as if they are legitimate. It seems Turkey can get away with anything.”

If Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger merely force out one foreign power to be replaced by another – then this policy will backfire in the long term. The Sahel nations need friendly ties and international support against the internal Islamist threats they face.

NATO also needs to tackle Turkey – if not, this organization is stabbing itself in the back.