| Turkestan Legion | |
|---|---|
| Turkistanische Legion | |
 Arm badge of the Turkistan Legion | |
| Founded | May 1942 |
| Disbanded | 1945 |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Branch | Wehrmacht |
| Size | 16,000 troops in 16 battalions (1943) |
| Part of | German Army |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Insignia | |
| Flag |  |
The Turkestan Legion (German: Turkistanische Legion) was the name of the military units composed of Turkic peoples who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Most of these troops were Red Army prisoners of war 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, a Turkish theorist of Pan-Turkism, which sought to separate territories inhabited by Turkic peoples from their countries and eventually unite them under Turkish rule.
Although Asian peoples had been perceived as "racially inferior" by the Nazis they were ready to use them for war effort.
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 faced execution or incarceration by the Soviet government for having collaborated with the Nazis. Notable members of the legion include Baymirza Hayit, a Turkologist who after the war settled in West Germany and became an advocate for Pan-Turkist political causes.