Berlin. 1942-43. The Armenian Legion performing Berd (Fortress) dance

"Berlin. 1942-43. The Armenian Legion performing Berd (Fortress) he traditional Caucasian warriors' dance after celebrating victory over Russian partisans.

The Armenian Legion or Armenische Legion was the name given to the 812th Armenian Battalion which was a foreign unit comprised of several thousand men. It was conscripted into the German Wehrmacht during World War II.

The battalion was trained by SS officers. The declaration made by Alfred Rosenberg of the Armenians being an Indo-European people came simultaneously with the conscription of the Armenians in Turkey, the Soviet Union and Western Europe, to destroy Turkey and the Soviet Union. The vision of an independent Armenia was revived. The expected prize was an Armenian state (in an expected new order) in a new world created by the Nazi-Germany.

Leaders Kanayan and Garegin Njdeh counted the support of over 18,000 Armenians. In addition to this exclusively Armenian unit, Nazi Armenians also served in the thirty eight other SS divisions, including the elite Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.@en, The Armenian Legion was the name given to the 812th Armenian Battalion, which was a foreign unit of the Nazi Germany during World War II, composed largely of POW Armenians of the Red Army, under the leadership of Drastamat Kanayan. Their established aim was the restoration of Armenia’s independence from the Soviet Union.

The Armenian and Georgian battalions were ultimately sent to the Netherlands as a result of Adolf Hitler's distrust for them, and due further to low morale and poor training, many of them deserted, defected or revolted. The legion, like other Turkic and Caucasian forces formed by the Germans, has been described by one military historian as "poorly armed, trained, and motivated," and was "unreliable and next to useless. " The Israeli scholar Yair Auron has noted that Turkish nationalist efforts to thwart recognition of the Armenian Genocide have resulted in the dissemination of various Turkish propaganda publications in regards to the Armenian Legion.

Organizers of the Armenian Legion were pursuing one goal, to save nation from Turkish possible inroads", post from «Time To Unite West And East» Facebook pages.