Turkmens ‘draft’ sultans into battle

Syrian Turkmens who have joined the rebels have named their military units for two Ottoman sultans, Fatih Sultan Mehmet and Sultan Abdülhamid. They lack arms, however, and are demanding supplies from Turkey.

Syrian Turkmens who have joined the opposition have announced the formation of their own brigades of Turkmen fighters under the roof of the al-Tawhid Brigade of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The Turkmens have decided to name their brigades after two Ottoman sultans: “Fatih Sultan Mehmet” (Mehmet the Conqueror) and “Sultan Abdülhamid.”

Members of the group have said they most demand arms from the Turkish government. “I have the names of 1,500 Turkmen soldiers registered in the Free Syrian Army, but only 300 of them can fight now because we don’t have arms. First and foremost, we want arms from the international community, especially from Turkey,” Ali Beshir, the organizational leader of the Syrian Turkmens and the person in charge of the Turkmen brigades, told the Hürriyet Daily News on Aug. 2 in a Turkmen village in northern Syria.

Beshir said machine guns were being sold on the black market by arms traders in Syria, but that they did not have enough money to buy such weapons. Beshir also said they did not have any problems with Syrian Kurds but admitted to worries about the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“We don’t have any problems with Kurds. But we have problems with PYD. They are very strong in Syria, they cooperate with the Syrian regime and they also get arms from northern Iraqi Kurdistan. They raise PKK flags in villages where Syrian Kurds live, and we are very opposed to this, but we don’t have arms or any power to interfere,” Beshir said.

No discrimination in rebel brigades

“Almost all of our fighters are fighting in Aleppo right now. We left only a couple of soldiers in every village for the protection of the villages,” Beshir said. Many of the soldiers appeared to be young, around 19 years old.

The community leader also introduced his son, who is 12 years old, saying “he will also be a member of the Free Syrian Army.”

Despite the existence of a Turkmen brigade, Beshir said there was no separation within the Free Syrian Army between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens.