Origins
Hitler had secret negotiations with the Turkish government to arm the Turks to join with the Nazis to invade and occupy the Caucuses and to create German-controlled territories to produce a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and the oil rich Middle East.Various Turkish government officials had secret contacts with the Azeris that if they helped the Nazis that they would be liberated from Soviet rule. Turkey and Germany had long cordial relations and were allies in the WWI and this friendship continued to WWII. Cabbar Ertürk who was elected as the responsible for cultural affairs of the Azerbaijan National Committee in Berlin played a critical role in convincing the Nazis to create an Azeri SS formation along with the Azeri Nazi Legion. 1.^ De Cordier (2010), The Fedayeen of the Reich: Muslims, Islam and Collaborationism During World War II, p. 34 China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, 2010 2.^ (German) Dallin, Alexander (1981). German rule in Russia, 1941-1945: a study of occupation policies, p. 231. Westview Press. 3.^ a b Andrew Andersen and Georg Egge. World War II: Axis Plans for Azerbaijan and the rest of the Caucasus. Retrieved 27 April 2012 The foreign Waffen beginnings were shrouded in great secrecy, for fear of Hitler who was categorically opposed to any form of participation of Soviet citizens in the war against Russia. But the needs of the army on the Eastern Front induced German commanders to accept the services of volunteers to fight the Soviet regime even against the clear orders of the Supreme Command.
Tens of thousands of them were Muslims, where the majority of them came from the Soviet Union. In December 1941 a top secret memorandum ordered that the OKW was to create two Muslim units: the Turkestanische Legion, consisting of Muslim volunteers from Central Asia; such as Turkomans, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Karakalpaks, and Tajiks, and the Kaukasisch-Mohammedanische Legion from Caucasian Muslims volunteers; such as Azeris, Dagestanis, Chechens, Ingushes, and Lezgins.
The German courting of the Soviet Muslims was part of Hitler's schemes for bringing Turkey onto his side and to advance control of the oil fields in the Middle East and Baku. The most numerous of the Soviet Muslims that served the Germans were the Turkestanis. The first Turkestani volunteers were integrated as one battalion of the 444th Sicherungs Division in November 1941, and became an auxiliary force to help the Germans fight the local partisans. Major Andreas Meyer-Mader was appointed as commander of the 444th Battalion. Meyer-Mader, an Austrian, had served on the staff of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Chinese Nationalist Army before WWII.
According to Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, 40,000 Azerbaijani nationals fought for Third Reich, while 700,000 Azerbaijanis were conscripted into the armies of the Soviet Union.
Read more about this topic: Azeri SS Volunteer Formations
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