alternatehistory.com

The Black Griffon - the savior of Crimea or beast of Tartary?
Gintas Vecerkauskas
www.10min.lt
2004-09-16



While the previous century was a time of controversial figures, few became as controversial in modern day as the recently deceased member of the royal family of the Crimean Khanate and one of the most capable military leaders of the state - Timur Giray. While many do consider him a hero, especially those who can relate the struggles of their own country with the one of Crimea, and Crimeans themselves consider Timur to be a sort of a national hero, the new information that became available after his death has led to many opposing such a decision. Usually debates about such topics don’t become as widespread as this one is now, but the either lucky or unlucky coincidence (depending on where you stand on the Crimean situation) that this data became available right after several other incidents concerning the peninsular Khanate, resulted in the massive controversy we are experiencing now.

Timur Giray, also known as the Black Griffon, for reasons which will be explained later, was, and still is quite the mysterious figure. Born in 1929, the first and the only illegitimate son of Iskandar Giray (who at the time was 16 years old) he spent his first few years, as his father was abroad, in less than stellar conditions as while the young khan had ordered his son to be taken care of properly, many of his relatives felt outright disdain towards young Timur, which resulted in the child suffering from abuse quite often. It is speculated that this abuse, suffered at such a young age (Timur was only 5 when his father returned to Crimea permanently in 1934 after the democratic-unitarian government was couped by the military) led to various mental diseases from which the Crimean general suffered later in life.

After the return of his father, the conditions in which Timur lived did improve, though while the child didn’t suffer physical abuse anymore, he was still often mentally abused. This only worsened as his father married Ayla Babouk, a Circassian noblewoman whose family originally came from Anatolia, but were forced to flee due to Unitarian take over. While Ayla herself didn’t really care about Timur and was somewhat polite when she had to talk with the child, her family members who had moved with her were of different mindsets. They seemed to consider Timur a potential threat to their own plans, as while he was a bastard and therefore illegitimate, there was still a possibility that Iskandar would choose him as a successor, therefore while they weren’t brave enough to try assassinating the child or doing physical harm to him, they didn’t have problems with showing outright disdain and hate.

The fact that Timur didn’t show any signs of mental damage until the Crimea War is a surprising one. In fact it seems, at least from various descriptions from what few friends he had during his youth, that during his teenage years the young Giray was, or at least was acting like, a normal, mentally stable human being. He reached above average results in various subjects and when he was 16 he enrolled in the Crimean Military academy. During his years there he didn’t show any signs of mental instability either. Rather it turned out that Timur was quite the capable military leader and tank commander. In fact some of his tutors described him as the perfect leader for an armored force.

While his education wasn’t finished at that point the young Giray took part in the Crimean War from the very beginning. Official Crimean documents only describe the countless engagements from which Timur emerged triumphant and the various medals that he earned due to these apparently perfect offensives, and later on, defenses. There are of course also quite detailed descriptions of young Girays swift ascend through military ranks.

If these texts are to be believed, not even once during neither the advance, not retreat of the Crimean and Circassian armies had Timur suffered a defeat against the Krajinians. And without any official Krajinian accounts stating otherwise, it seems that this almost impossible claim, is in fact, true.(It were these maneuvers, mostly offensive which earned him the nickname “Black Griffon” due to his aggressive and extremely bold actions). He is also believed to be the officer responsible for holding back the advance the east Slavic forces during their attempts to break through the Crimean defensive lines at the Iskandar line. The only actual defeats that Timur Giray suffered were the attempted breakthroughs through the Russian and Krajinian defensive lines after the forces of the Khanate were pushed back to the Crimean peninsula. And even then it wasn’t due to any strategic mistakes, but rather the fault of weak armaments of the Griffin tanks.


Timur’s later service to his homeland wasn’t as impressive as his victories in the Crimean war, but were quite important to the future of the Khanate. He was part of the team of military commanders who helped in the creation of heavier Crimean tank models and the “Hyppogriff” series of mobile artillery. And that’s not even mentioning his decades long work in the Crimean military academy, teaching entire generations of officers.



Now, with all this information presented to you, you might be questioning, especially if you haven’t participated in any of the debates of why considering Timur Giray a national hero is amoral, you might be questioning why is this individual considered evil?

Well, this is where the data that became available after the near collapse of the Crimean political order comes in. It was this information, both official documents and testimonies from various people who through their lives had prolonged contact with the general, that quite contradicted how Timur Giray was usually portrayed by the Crimean media, not to mention that it extremely muddied his image.

It’s these various texts that reveal quite a bit about what type of person the Black Griffon truly was. One of most notable facts about Timur Giray, one that must have caught many by surprise, were his mental instabilities, his extreme cruelty and his narcissism. Of course, none of these could ever be observed during any of the public meetings or appearances, as it seems that the general was quite capable at creating a facade of normality. However, during the times when nobody besides the very closest to him people were present he would reveal his true colors.

The interviews with his widow and children paint quite the negative picture of Timur. For example everyone would remark about how the Giray never seemed to truly value them as people, only caring of them in ways that he could use them to create a great legacy for himself. It also seems that while he was a victim of abuse in his childhood himself, Timur wasn’t beyond using it to punish his wife and children for what we perceived as wrong actions taken by them. That’s not even mentioning the apparent mood-swings that he would seemingly experience out of nowhere. One of his daughters remarked that he could flip in seconds, one moment paying no care to what his offspring are doing, even acting somewhat kind and reasonable, and the other he would begin beating them, taken over by some sort of unexplained rage.

Of course, Timur Giray wouldn’t be the first figure, considered as a national hero that was abusive and cruel to those close to them. And this isn’t really the reason why the debate over calling the general a Crimean national hero are so widespread and intense. Rather, the reason are his actions and crimes committed during the Crimean War.

The information in the reports from various commanding officers and soldiers paint quite the disturbing picture of what Giray did during the invasion of Krajina. It seems that this military campaign was the event during which the extreme brutality and cruelty of Timur was first documented. Most notable of these was his horrible and inhumane treatment of captured Krajinian soldiers. While many on both sides weren’t saints in how they treated captured soldiers, this was nothing in comparison to the actions of Giray. He seemed to consider the captured Slavic soldiers as “playthings” at best. During the few moments of free time that he had, he would gruesomely torture his prisoners and later execute them by either stabbing them with a bayonet, or shooting them with a pistol. At least 150 Ruthenians were maimed and killed by the Black Griffon during the invasion of Krajina. No reason or explanation was given by Timur for his actions. The individuals tortured and killed weren’t in the position to posses any valuable information and even if they did, Crimeans seemed to already have sources for such information.

Some have suggested that this was an attempt at spreading terror and fear in enemy ranks. This wouldn’t make any sense however, as there were no survivors, who could spread the word of Crimean atrocities between the Krajinians and all the mutilated bodies were disposed as efficiently and swiftly as possible with none being discovered, as evidenced by the fact that the only sources which describe these actions were Crimean documents. Moreover, these actions were undertaken by only Timur himself, at least to this extent and to this barbarity, which in turn means that it couldn’t have been part of any logical strategy.

And while yes, many generals and other military leaders have caused far more deaths than Timur Giray ever could, this is not what caused these quite widespread debates. Rather, as mentioned previously in the article, and as we all probably know, its his status as a Crimean national hero. Many consider that the Black Griffon is a war criminal, clearly undeserving the label that has been attached to him, while others believe that while he had indeed done some horrible things, his positive input into Crimean society and its advancement far outweighs his crimes.


Ultimately, the decision on what is Timur Giray to you and which side of the argument to support is your own. This article, after all is only supposed to inform you about the Black Griffon, but not convince you to choose a certain side.