Turan Battalion
FounderAidos Sadykov
CommanderAlmaz Kudabek
FoundationNovember 20, 2022
Country Ukraine
Allegiance Armed Forces of Ukraine
IdeologyPan-Turkism
Turanism
Anti-Russian sentiment
StatusActive
Size≈600
Part of Ukrainian Ground Forces
Opponents Russia

Chechen Republic

Battles and warsRusso-Ukrainian War

The Turan Battalion is a Turkic volunteer battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighting in the Russo-Ukrainian War.[1]

History

On November 20, 2022, a Kazakh opposition activist named Aidos Sadykov declared the group's creation in his Telegram channel. He appointed Kyrgyz national Almaz Kudabek, who worked as a hairdresser in Kyiv, as the commander of the group. Almaz Kudabek appeared in the group's introduction video where he states that the group's goal is to fight against Russia's "genocide against Turkic peoples", and also threatened Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov.[2] The Kyrgyz ambassador to Ukraine, Idris Kadirkulov, offered Kudabek to return to Kyrgyzstan, but Kudabek rejected the offer and chose to keep fighting in Ukraine.[3][4] In a January 2023 interview, Almaz Kudabek said that the Turan Battalion had about 600 fighters, and claimed that Kadyrov had placed a 500 thousand dollar hit on him.[5] The Turan Battalion has ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Azerbaijanis, Uyghurs, Tatars, Crimean Tatars, and various other Turkic peoples from Russia and the North Caucasus among its ranks.[1][6] A fighter from the Russian-Ukrainian war named Jasulan Duysembin, "the Kazakh Rambo", also joined the battalion.[4][7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "More and more representatives of the captive nations of Russia are fighting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces - Ukrainian World Congress". www.ukrainianworldcongress.org. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  2. ↑ "Established the Turkic 'Turan Battalion' in Ukraine". www.specialeurasia.com. 2022-11-21. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  3. ↑ "На Украине создан батальон "Туран" при поддержке Турции" (in Russian). 2022-11-21. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  4. 1 2 ""Уничтожать режим Путина и Кадырова": турецкие партнёры помогли создать на Украине неофашистский батальон "Туран"". utyug.info (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  5. ↑ "Leader of Turan battalion explained Kadyrov's award for his head". Silkway News. 2023-01-25. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  6. ↑ "Батальйон "Туран": NYT розповіли про добровольців у ЗСУ із Середньої Азії та Кавказу (фото)". ФОКУС (in Ukrainian). 2023-01-09. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  7. ↑ "WarGonzo: на Украине при поддержке Турции создали батальон "Туран"". www.mk.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-24.
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