MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Foreign mercenaries from Turkey and a number of Arab countries are still engaged in terrorist activities in Chechnya, and at least seven guerillas from Turkey are fighting for the Chechen separatists at the moment, a source in Russian security and law enforcement agencies told Interfax on Tuesday.
The source said 24 Turkish fighters have been killed in Chechnya in the past seven years. In particular, three of them were killed in a battle with paratroopers from Pskov in February 2000, in which 84 Russian servicemen died, the source said.
According to law-enforcement data, Turkish natives got involved in the activity of Chechen rebel gangs in the mid-1990s, the source stressed. The Turkish extremists' interests in the North Caucasus and primarily in Chechnya increased dramatically after the collapse of the USSR.
Meanwhile, the source pointed out that Moscow makes a clear distinction between the activity of international terrorists and the official position of Ankara. Turkey, he said, seeks to build relations on the basis of good neighborliness and respect for the two countries' national interests.