Chechens ready to assist Azeris in Karabakh front
If the situation on the Karabakh border escalates, the Chechens will be fighting against Armenians, Maribek Tamarov, a Chechen human rights activist currently residing in Baku told the Baku-based newspaper Echo.
In 1993-1994, along with Afghanis, many Chechens were fighting against the Karabakh forces with some of them captured by the Armenians. In his 1995 TV interview to a Russian TV channel, field commander Shamil Basayev had confessed that the defeat at Martakert in Karabakh was his only defeat.
The short time Chechen Basayev spent in the region ( Karabakh) was crucial in his "career",
because, according to some reports, it was there that he met Amir Ibn
Khattab, sent to the region by Osama Bin Laden to participate in the civil
war in Tajikistan and assist the Azeries in the war against the Armenians.
It is with Khattab that Basayev later traveled to Afghanistan.