Valery Kulikov
Against the backdrop of the sheer failure of the West’s hybrid war against Russia, including in the formation of a “second anti-Russian front” in Central Asia, the propaganda activities of Ukraine and several Western media outlets began to be clearly manifested by way of promoting the “valor” of the recently created by the Kiev Nazi regime battalion known as Turan.
Recently on social networks and several media outlets, information about this latest neo-Nazi formation, which allegedly comprises representatives of the Turkic world, including the Turkish nationalist organization Bozkurt (“Grey Wolves” – recognized a as terrorist organization in the Russian Federation and CSTO member states). It is reported that this militant group is headed by a citizen of Kyrgyzstan Almaz Kudabek uulu and it allegedly includes about 300 people, among whom are mercenaries of Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uighur origin, immigrants from Azerbaijan, as well as from the Middle East.
It is worth noting that information about the participation of the Grey Wolves in hostilities on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to be actively disseminated by Ukraine in April 2022, when about 3,000 militants were deployed across the Polish-Ukrainian border, while Turkey, under the influence of beneficially developing relations with Russia, decreased its support for the Kiev regime.
By the way, something similar about the participation of mercenaries from the Central Asian states in armed clashes could already be observed earlier, when the West threw against the Russian Armed Forces in Syria such units formed from renegades from the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, trained by NATO instructors. At that time, these US actions had the explicit goal of causing Moscow to distrust people from these regions for engagement in serious Russian military operations.
The use of such old methods in the appearance of the Turan battalion was clearly calculated by Washington for a similar reaction by Moscow in its special operation to denazify Ukraine.
Earlier, the creation of the “Turkic Legion” was announced by Azerbaijani neo-Nazi Magomed Jafarov, who fought on the side of the Kiev regime as a mercenary. On May 13, the Baku TV channel even aired a report about the Muslim Corps and the creation of a unit within the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which included military personnel from Central Asian and Transcaucasian republics who participated in the hostilities on the side of Ukraine in Donbass starting from 2014.
It is noteworthy that Ukrainian and the Western media outlets alike are strenuously highlighting the allegedly main role of Turkey in the creation of this ultra-Nazi militant group. The United States clearly expected that such a move would be perceived by Moscow as crossing red lines and would become a reason for retaliatory measures against Ankara, cool Moscow’s relations with Ankara and make it actively involved in the anti-Russian front. According to the version promoted by Ukraine, due to the “Turan” connection with the Turkish far-right nationalist organization “Grey Wolves,” it is Ankara that even possibly finances these militants. At the same time, it was indicated that their combat training allegedly takes place in the Turkish province of Izmir where the Grey Wolves training base is located, as well as the headquarters of the NATO combined ground forces in the southeastern part of the South European theater of operations. For the propaganda promotion of “Turan,” Ukrainian special services adopted the pan-Turanist ideas of the ideologists of the Ottoman Empire, who dreamed of a “Great Turkey” or the so-called “State of Turan” – from the Danube to the Russian Far East.
The purpose of such propaganda bogus stories is clear: to drive a wedge between Russia and Turkey, which is of particular interest today not only to Ukraine, but also to the United States, which has been zealously monitoring the active development of Russian-Turkish projects in recent times. Namely, active work to strengthen bilateral trade and economic ties, to build nuclear power facilities in Turkey and to create the largest gas hub in this country. The latter component is perceived with particular antagonism in Washington since this project could nullify all the attempts already made by the United States to remove Russia from the European gas market and gain a dominant position there at the cost of deindustrialization of the EU and mass poverty of Europeans. After all, it is this project that will allow Russia to supply its gas to the countries of the European Union, bypassing US sanctions. Thanks to this project, Turkey will receive huge dividends and become an important supplier of cheap gas for Europe, which is necessary for European countries to fully operate industrial enterprises, heat European homes and compete on equal terms with the United States in the economic sphere. Along with that, it will strengthen Ankara’s independence from both the United States and the European Union.
So why should Ankara, under such favorable conditions, ruin relations with Moscow today and support this useless renegade battalion known as “Turan”?
As for the composition of Turan, its initiators expected that, due to financial and economic problems in the countries of Central Asia and a significant flow of migrant workers from there who are looking for work outside their homeland, it would be easy to find mercenaries. Certain hopes were also tied to the activities of Western NGOs, which in the recent period have been especially active in inciting hatred towards Russia and Russians in the countries of the region. To recruit such mercenaries at the Ukrainian embassies in the countries of Central Asia, in violation of the norms of international diplomatic ethics, even special units were created. For instance, the reception of Uzbek volunteers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine was opened at the Ukrainian Embassy in Tashkent, and the Kiev regime opened similar points for recruiting mercenaries in its other diplomatic missions in the region. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has created a relevant website with explanations on how citizens of the region can join the Armed Forces of Ukraine and get to Ukraine in the current difficult wartime period.
And, although Ukraine itself does not have the money to finance such militants, nevertheless, the promises of more and more significant loans from the West “for the fight against Russia” should have covered such costs. In addition to the financial support of mercenarism for the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the United States, one should not forget about the so-called centers for the “re-education of former ISIS (this terrorist organization is prohibited in the Russian Federation) militants” specially created at American military bases in Syria and several other countries of the Middle East. Which in fact turned into militant training centers for covert CIA operations.
However, no promises of “external assistance” allowed Kiev to create an effective Central Asian military unit. Furthermore, the tightening of national legislation in the countries of Central Asia in order to combat terrorism and mercenarism, especially severely punishing local citizens since 2014 for participating in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, is a serious deterrent.
In a series of recent public speeches by the leader of Turan, Almaz Kudabek uulu, and some of his henchmen, the involvement in the creation of this militant group points not to Turkey, but to the United States, which is trying to use this native of Kyrgyzstan as its puppet to inflict not only damage on the Russian army, but also to use the Turan project (possibly) to create chaos in Russia and Central Asia. Therefore, without a doubt, the said Turan project will continue to carry out its provocative activities in the information space to incite anti-Russian sentiment and destabilize the Central Asian region, provoking mass unrest and increasing Russophobia.
In addition to including this so-called Turan battalion on the list of targets of Russia’s special operation to denazify Ukraine, a very serious response to this Western project is the recent growing support for the Russian special operation in Ukraine, both in Kyrgyzstan and in other countries of the region. And so is the number of Kyrgyz people and citizens of other Central Asian countries who, since 2014, have been travelling to help Eastern Ukraine in the fight against the Nazi Kiev regime and forming “Friends of Donbass” communities in Russia.
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 