Turkey’s direct intervention in the clashes in the southern Caucasus, which has been under the influence of Russia for over two centuries, risks a new confrontation between Ankara and Moscow. The international news media and Syrian local sources are abuzz with reports of Syrian fighters transported to Azerbaijan to support its battle against Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and occupied territories.

Despite denials by Ankara and Baku, some sources have already reported the first Syrian casualties in the clashes. According to Muzahem al-Salum, a former spokesperson of Jaysh Maghawir Al-Thawra, a Syrian rebel group that was once backed by the United States, the first group of Syrian fighters was dispatched to Caucasus a week ago before the fresh clashes Armenia and Azerbaijan resumed on Sep. 26. Salum claimed the fighters were recruited through a center set up by the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad Brigades in northern Syria.

Accordingly, a group of 150 fighters from Faylaq al-Sham reportedly crossed to Turkey from Afrin and then flew to Azerbaijan from Adana International Airport. The fighters were allegedly taken to training camps on two islands in the Caspian Sea for tactical training and told that their job would be to defend Azeri gas facilities. Al-Salum also claimed that the fighters were promised some $1500 a month and that the majority of the fighters were selected from Syrian Turkmen candidates out of concern for the language barrier. The Sultan Murat Brigade is reportedly expected to send some 2,000 fighters to Azerbaijan in the next couple of weeks.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, tweeted that dozens of Syrian fighters crossed into Turkey from northern Syria in mid-September, citing her conversations with Syrian fighters’ relatives and friends. She added that she wasn’t able to verify the reports that the fighters were sent to Azerbaijan, as contact with their families was cut off once they arrived in Turkey. She said some fighters had signed up for the deployment through WhatsApp and others at recruitment offices in the Turkish-controlled regions in northern Syria. Tsurkov also argued that the private Turkish defense company SADAT, which has close ties to the Turkish government, might have played a role in the recruitment operations.