Soldiers from Turkic Nations form Battalion in Ukraine to Fight Russian Invaders

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 21 – At the end of October, an Azerbaijani volunteer serving in the Ukrainian army said that there were plans to form a Turkic Legion to fight alongside the Ukrainians against Russian invaders (qirim.news/ru/novosti/v-ukrainskoj-armii-sozdadut-tyurkskij-legion/).

            Those plans now appear to have taken shape in the form of the Turan Battalion, a group consisting of Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Buryat, Altay, and Daghestani soldiers under the command of a Kyrgyzstan citizen Almas Kudabek uulu, who is wanted by Bishkek (t.me/basekz/5865, graniru.org/Politics/World/Europe/Ukraine/m.286801.html and youtube.com/watch?v=Mstkd6I8jAI).

            “Under the guise of a special operation,” the battalion’s commander says in an interview, “Putin is carrying out the genocide of the Turkic-language people. Covering himself with Islam, Ramzan Kadyrov has declared a jihad. Islam for us is holy, and one must not play games on this score.”

            And he continues: “We will destroy Kadyrov’s devilish regime and Putin’s imperial regime. We will struggle every day and spread terror against [their supporters and agents] inside and out.”