More and more of the most incredible stories are born in the minds of active users of Internet resources. This applies to almost all areas of life. Naturally, such stories also concern army formations, "terribly secret" units, staffed by fighters with incredible capabilities. This is understandable from a business point of view. More hype, more subscribers, more money in your own wallet. We are used to such "news".
However, sometimes news needs to be "corrected". And this, alas, happens all the time. One blog post that gets a lot of shares, and then publications in some media - that's all. Readers take the news as fact. It is often impossible to convince otherwise. Well, not so many "respected people on the Internet" can tell fairy tales. Yes, and Western media report … Oh, this admiration for the "honest media" of Europe and America!
Practically since mid-April of this year, various sources periodically appear reports about the participation in hostilities in Syria of a new "Russian" special unit under the strange name TURAN. Or, as it is also called, "special forces from the USSR".
The mass media report the number of this detachment at 800-1200 people. Ethnicity. Immigrants from the republics of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Azerbaijan. About the religion of the fighters. Naturally, Muslims. Even equipment and uniforms are sometimes described. From old "Afghan women" to modern uniforms of almost all armies of the world. Armament - from Soviet-made machine guns to modern Western designs …
Naturally, such a detachment should be "from the most secret special services." Initially, the conversation turned to Chechnya. Moreover, the battalions of the military police from Chechnya have indeed arrived in Syria and are showing themselves very well there. We also tried Ingushetia. Did not work out. The ethnic composition "let us down" …
Then another wave of information rolled through. This is a super-duper secret detachment of the MTR of Russia. It is also clear why. The SSO also showed themselves to be a rather serious, competent and well-trained structure. It is for honor to "stick" to such fighters. Only and "in the face of the face" can be raked from these same fighters in person.
Today, after all, they found a harmless, serious company that glows little, but is quite respected in well-known circles. This is the SVR special forces! Belonging to this very structure perfectly explains the "independence" of TURAN's actions. This is not MO. Therefore, they do not obey the department of Sergei Shoigu. I wonder how long this version will last?
What you read next is nothing more than my own view of TURAN. And this view is based on the analysis of open sources. No top-secret archives and no conversations with people who "know the situation from the inside".
So where did the idea of creating a squad on a religious basis come from? This is not the know-how of the TURAN command. This is a direct copy of the Muslim battalion during the Afghan war. It was then that the USSR used its capabilities for the first time. We are a multinational country. Many languages of the Central Asian peoples practically coincide with the languages of the peoples in Afghanistan. And belonging to the same religion helps to quickly find a common language. Not to violate moral, ethical and religious canons, and this is indeed a significant factor for Asian countries.
And here the first inconsistency of the new "Russian special forces detachment" opens. TURAN does not hide, as I wrote above, its ethnic composition. These are citizens not so much of Russia as of other countries. No matter how we treat Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics, no one will deny that these are independent countries. Not Russia. Or has Russia got its own foreign legion?
There is another discrepancy that is little written about in the Russian and Western press, but a lot is said in the Arab media. Place of TURAN's formation. Not Russia or any of the former Soviet republics. No, this is … Syria! TURAN was formed in the east of the Wadi Barrada valley near Palmyra! (Saudi edition of Al-Watan Saudi Arabia). Russia does not form its own military formations abroad.
Now about weapons and equipment. Indeed, during the work of some special forces of the MTR, various forms of clothing and weapons are used. The specifics of the work of such units is somewhat different than the work of TURAN. And the numbers too. I once wrote about this in one of the articles. And what do we see in this unit? We see well-trained soldiers of an ordinary reconnaissance unit. And they work precisely as specialists in countering sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the enemy.
Another interesting fact. A clear dosing of information in the press and on the Internet. These are not random "highlights" of the fighters, but quite well-designed commercials about the supermen from TURAN. And who in our country most often uses advertising as an engine?.. Let me remind you that last year the Wagner PMC was often mentioned on the network and various media … Just information for thought.
Sometimes people ask about the name TURAN itself. I suggest you conduct an experiment. Ask your friend from any Asian republic about Turan. Surprise, but almost every Turkic people have stories about the huge state of Turan that once existed. It was located on the territory from Altai to the Mediterranean Sea. Historians, however, do not confirm this fact, but the idea itself is very popular today among the Turkic peoples. And these are precisely the main "suppliers" of fighters for the detachment.
TURAN is currently active in the province of Hama. The main specialization of the detachment is counter-guerrilla warfare. After the introduction of known restrictions by the memorandum on de-escalation zones in Syria, the detachment was transferred from the province of Hama to the province of Homs.
So who are they? Why can you see them today at training in clubs and shooting galleries in Russia? Why is the replenishment for TURAN being prepared in private sports clubs? The answer is simple. PMCs!
Yes, war is nothing more than work for a certain category of people. An ordinary job that pays well. Praising or condemning these people is foolish. The state, any and with all its might, sometimes cannot solve the same problems that PMCs do. It cannot precisely because it is a state. A "private trader" can. He is mobile and fully prepared. Not limited in the choice of fighters. The private trader is not interested in the employee's citizenship, his ethnicity, his worldview. And numerous reports in the media about the success of TURAN are nothing more than an advertising campaign to attract new employees.
Stories about TURAN's belonging to the special services from the series "one woman said." Although it is impossible to deny that it is possible, I repeat, perhaps the detachment is also fulfilling some of the "requests" of the specialists. Dans la guerre comme à la guerre. The main thing is that the detachment operates precisely from the side of the front line from which we need. This means that TURAN is doing the right job, no matter what they say about it. And it does it well, again, judging by the videos that are posted on the network.
Looking through Western publications, I noticed that TURAN is often used today to explain the aggressive policy of Russia. In particular, some Western analysts speak directly about the military unit, which is designed not so much to fight terrorists as "to attract peaceful Syrians to the side of the Kremlin." Alas, the war on the information field continues. And, as you can see, any means are used to prove to the American and European ordinary people the need to increase military budgets, the need to prepare oneself for war. And by and large, to instill the inevitability of war … This is how they are, modern realities …
