The Turkestan Legion (german: Turkistanische Legion) was the name for the military units composed of the

Turkic peoples The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging t ...

who served in the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Most of these troops were

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

who formed a common cause with the Germans (cf. Turkic, Caucasian, Cossack, and Crimean collaborationism with the Axis powers). Its establishment was spearheaded by

Nuri Killigil Nuri Killigil, also known as Nuri Pasha (1889–1949) was an Ottoman general in the Ottoman Army. He was the half-brother of Ottoman Minister of War, Enver Pasha. Military career Libya Infantry Machine-Gun Captain Nuri Efendi was sent t ...

, a Turkish theorist of

Pan-Turkism Pan-Turkism is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim bei ...

, which sought to separate territories inhabited by Turkic peoples from their countries and eventually unite them under Turkish rule. Although Turkic peoples had been perceived initially as " racially inferior" by the Nazis, this attitude officially already changed in autumn 1941, when, in view of the difficulties faced in their

invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

, the Nazis attempted to harness the nationalist sentiment of

in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

for political gain. The first Turkestan Legion was mobilized in May 1942, originally consisting of only one battalion but expanded to 16 battalions and 16,000 soldiers by 1943. Under the Wehrmacht's command, these units were deployed exclusively on the Western Front in France and Italy, isolating them from contact with the Red Army. The battalions of the Turkestan Legion formed part of the 162nd Infantry Division and saw much action in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia (especially modern-day Croatia) and Italy. A large portion of the Turkestan Legion was captured by Allied forces and repatriated into the Soviet Union after the war's end, where they would face execution or incarceration by the Soviet government for having collaborated with the Nazis. Notable members of the legion include

Baymirza Hayit Baymirza Hayit Mahmutmirzaoğlov (17 December 1917 – 31 October 2006), also spelled Boymirza Hayit Mahmutmirzaoğlov, was a historian and orientalist who specialised in the history of Turkestan and Central Asia. Life Baymirza Hayit was born ...

, a

Turkologist Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative con ...

who after the war settled in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and became an advocate for Pan-Turkist political causes.

Units

* Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 450 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 452 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 781 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 782 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 783 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 784 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 785 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 786 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 787 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 788 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 789 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 790 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 791 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 792 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 793 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 794 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 811 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 839 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 840 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 841 * Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 842

Units

See also

References

Further reading