Mohamed Ibrahim BBC Arabic Division

Photo source, JILLA DASTMALCHI / BBC
"I didn't know we were going to fight," Abdullah (not his real name) told the via a messaging app.
Talking to him without exception and Abdullah was very numb. He was afraid if he was caught texting a journalist.
"They told me to go to Azerbaijan and guard the border. I will get two thousand dollars," he said.
"There was no war then, we didn't get any military training."
Little did this Syrian young man know that he would have to fight a war within a week, of which he had no idea, and of which country he had never been.
No training, no war

Photo source, EPA / AZERBAIJAN DEFENCE MINISTRY
Photo caption,
Azerbaijani soldiers during military operations
Like most residents of northern Syria, Abdullah's family is poor and war-weary. In a recent survey, 61% of respondents in the region said they had to live on less than ৫০ 50 a month.
So when Abdullah was asked last week to pay him 40 times his salary and go to the Azerbaijani border to "guard an army outpost", he took it in stride.
"There was no fighting then. We were taken from northern Syria to a village called Hur Kels. There, the opposition Syrian National Army took all our belongings, money, phones, clothes, so that no one could identify us."
Abdullah was able to recover his phone some time later.
"We were then taken to Entebbe Airport in southern Turkey. From there we flew for an hour and 40 minutes to Istanbul Airport, from where we flew to Azerbaijan on an Azeri Airlines flight and were taken to an army checkpoint on our border. We were not given any military training."
Abdullah was taken to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a disputed area that has been in conflict for decades.
The mountain enclave is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the area is controlled by ethnic Armenians.
The two countries fought a bloody war over the area in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Thousands have died in the conflict, and nearly a million have been left homeless.
Although the two sides declared a ceasefire, they never agreed to a peace deal. As a result, tensions have risen in the area.
To learn more about the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, see:
Video caption,
Conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Karabakh region
You can read more:
Fighting resumes between Armenia and Azerbaijan Armenia and Azerbaijan: What is the military strength of a country?

'We Didn't Know Where the Enemy Was'

Image source, REUTERS
Photo caption,
Armenian troops are on the battlefield in Nagorno-Karabakh
On Sunday, September 26, Abdullah was in the camp for about a week. There were more Syrians like him in that camp, everyone went there for money, not to fight. Suddenly they were told they had to leave very quickly. Abdullah was very surprised.
"They picked us up in a truck carrying soldiers. We wore Azerbaijani uniforms, each with a Kalashnikov rifle."
Then the fierce fighting started again in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Where the car stopped, I was surprised to see the front battlefield. We were on the battlefield. But we didn't even know where the enemy was. At that moment, the bombing started, everyone started crying in fear, wanted to go home. A shell came right next to us. Three were killed and three were injured. "
Abdullah said he saw the bodies of ten Syrians in the next few days. Local sources in northern Syria told the BBC that news of Syrians' deaths in Azerbaijan was first coming out of their families in the country.
"Another 70 Syrians were injured," Abdullah said, "and they were not given any medical treatment."
Foreign fighters

Image source, REUTERS
Photo caption,
During the Nagorno-Karabakh battle, locals took refuge in a pit dug under the ground
Armenia claims that about 4,000 Syrians have been sent to fight in Azerbaijan. However, Turkey has vehemently denied the allegations.
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has said that Turkey is not involved in their fight with Armenia. Turkey is just giving them moral support.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have close political, ethnic and cultural ties.
However, this is not the first time that Syrian fighters have been sent to fight outside Turkey.
A report released by the United Nations in May states that Syrians have been sent to Libya from northern Syria via Turkey to fight in the country's civil war.
Videos of Syrian fighters in Tripoli have sparked widespread outrage and accusations of inciting Libya's civil war against Turkey.
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says sending fighters to Azerbaijan has created divisions among Syria's armed opposition.
Some factions with Turkmen roots are interested in sending fighters at Turkey's request.
But other factions, including Homs and Ghota, do not want to get involved. They see this conflict as a conflict between Shia Muslim-majority Azerbaijani and Armenian Christians. Fighters in the Syrian opposition are mainly Sunni Muslims.
Last conversation
After a short conversation, communication with Abdullah was cut off. His words were no longer heard.
I thought Abdullah might have been caught and threatened, or his phone might have been stolen. However, it may be that the internet connection in the area is weak, which is why communication is no longer possible.
The last thing Abdullah said was to pray for a speedy recovery.
"Since the beginning of the war, we have tried to tell the bosses here that we want to return to our home in Syria. They have said - no. They have threatened us that if we do not go to war on the battlefield, we will be imprisoned for a long time. In a sense, I am now in exile. "
