Elizabeth Tsurkov

The Syrian Mercenaries Abroad

The nearly decade-long civil war has created an entire generation of young men whose only marketable skill is fighting.

Who Are Turkey’s Proxy Fighters in Syria?

Mazen, a Levant Front fighter, used the third person to describe his faction’s participation in Turkey’s Syrian intervention: “they [the SNA fighters] are employees of the Turkish state to protect its border.” Then he switched to the first person: “The Turks are using us as cannon fodder. We’ve become mercenaries.”

A Survey of Syria’s Alawi Sect

The regime’s heavy reliance on Alawis in the army units and militias dispatched to the front-lines, coupled with the community’s relatively small size, have resulted in disproportionate losses of the sect’s young men.