Grey Wolves (organization)

Idealist Clubs Educational
and Cultural Foundation
Ülkü Ocakları Eğitim ve Kültür Vakfı
LeaderAhmet Yiğit Yıldırım[1]
Dates of operation1968 (1968)–present
Active regionsTurkey,[2][3] Northern Cyprus,[2] Western Europe, Syria, Central Asia, China (Xinjiang), Azerbaijan, North Caucasus (1990s)
Ideology
Political positionFar-right[2][3][4][5]
Major actionsMassacres, assassinations, bombings[2][4][35]
Notable attacks
List:
StatusActive; the Grey Wolves have been banned from Azerbaijan in 1995[39] and France in 2020.[40]
Size
  • Turkey: 3.6% of the electorate are supporters (2014)[41] ≈ 1.9 million[a]
  • Germany: 7,000 (2015) to 18,000+ (2017)[42]
Means of revenueArms trafficking,[28] illegal drug trade,[28][32][35] extortion,[28] human trafficking[43]
AlliesAlperen Hearths
 United States (in the Cold War)
Opponents Islamic State
Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdish Hezbollah
Raiders Organization
Designated as a terrorist group by Kazakhstan[44]

The Grey Wolves (Turkish: Bozkurtlar),[3][28][45] officially known by the short name Idealist Hearths (Turkish: Ülkü Ocakları,[3][46][47] [ylcy odʒakɫaɾɯ]), is a Turkish far-right political movement and the youth wing of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).[48] Commonly described as ultranationalist,[4] neo-fascist,[4][14][15] Islamo-nationalist[7][8][9][49] (sometimes secular),[50] and racist,[51] the Grey Wolves have been described by some scholars, journalists, and governments as a death squad and a terrorist organization.[2][35][52][53][44][39] Its members deny its political nature and claim it to be a cultural and educational foundation,[54] citing its full official name: Idealist Clubs Educational and Cultural Foundation (Turkish: Ülkü Ocakları Eğitim ve Kültür Vakfı).[55]

Established by Colonel Alparslan Türkeş in the late 1960s, the Grey Wolves rose to prominence during the late 1970s political violence in Turkey when its members engaged in urban guerrilla warfare with left-wing militants and activists.[2][4][28] Scholars hold it responsible for most of the violence and killings in this period, including the Maraş massacre in December 1978, which killed over 100 Alevis.[4] They are also alleged to have been behind the Taksim Square massacre in May 1977, and to have played a role in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict from 1978 onwards. The attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 by Grey Wolves member Mehmet Ali Ağca[2] was never formally linked to Grey Wolves leaders, and the organization's role remains unclear.

The organization has long been a prominent suspect in investigations into the deep state in Turkey, and is suspected of having close dealings in the past with the Counter-Guerrilla, the Turkish branch of the NATO Operation Gladio, as well as the Turkish mafia.[56] Among the Grey Wolves' prime targets are non-Turkish ethnic minorities such as Kurds, Greeks, and Armenians,[40][57] and leftist activists.[58]

A staunchly pan-Turkist organization,[2][16][17] in the early 1990s the Grey Wolves extended their area of operation into the post-Soviet states with Turkic and Muslim populations. Up to thousands of its members fought in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War on the Azerbaijani side, and the First and Second Chechen–Russian Wars on the Chechen side. After an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in Azerbaijan in 1995, they were banned in that country.[39] In 2005, Kazakhstan also banned the organization, classifying it as a terrorist group.[44]

The organization is also active in Northern Cyprus,[2] and has affiliated branches in Western European nations with a significant Turkish diaspora such as Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. They are the largest right-wing extremist organization in Germany.[42] The Grey Wolves were banned in France in November 2020 for hate speech and political violence,[40] and calls for similar actions are made elsewhere. In May 2021, the European Parliament also called on member states of the European Union to designate it as a terrorist group.[3]

While it was characterized as the MHP's paramilitary or militant wing during the 1976-1980 political violence in Turkey,[61] under Devlet Bahçeli, who assumed the leadership of the MHP and Grey Wolves after Türkeş's death in 1997, the organization claims to have reformed.[62] According to a 2021 poll, the Grey Wolves are supported by 3.2% of the Turkish electorate.

  1. ^ "Ülkü Ocakları'na yeni başkan atandı". Milliyet (in Turkish). 7 July 2020. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Martin, Augustus; Prager, Fynnwin (2019). "Part II: The Terrorists – Violent Ideologies: Terrorism From the Left and Right". Terrorism: An International Perspective. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications. p. 302. ISBN 9781526459954. LCCN 2018948259. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2021. The Grey Wolves – The most prominent organization of the violent right wing in Turkey is the Grey Wolves. The Grey Wolves are named for a mythical she-wolf who led ancient Turks to freedom. Its wolf's-head symbol is displayed by MHP members and other nationalists. The Grey Wolves have been implicated in many attacks against leftists, Kurds and student organizations. They have also been implicated in attacks supporting the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. Mehmet Ali Ağca, who was convicted of shooting Pope John Paul II, was a known former Grey Wolf.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Sánchez Amor, N. (25 May 2022). "Document A9-0149/2022: Report on the 2021 Commission Report on Turkey". Bruxelles: European Parliament. Archived from the original on 27 August 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Taspinar, Omer (2005). "The Kurdish Question in Turkish Politics". Kurdish Nationalism and Political Islam in Turkey: Kemalist Identity in Transition. Middle East Studies: History, Politics & Law. New York and London: Routledge. pp. 92–94. doi:10.4324/9780203327036. ISBN 9780415512848. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "The Grey Wolves". ITNetwork: International Network on Holocaust and Genocide. 14–15 (2). Sydney: Centre for Comparative Genocide Studies, Macquarie University: 31. 1999. ISSN 1441-8916. The Grey Wolves (Ulku Ocagi in Turkish) are a group of ultra-right-wing Turkish nationalists whose agenda is rabidly anti-Hellenic, anti-Armenian, anti-Kurdish and anti-Semitic.
  6. ^ "Ülkü Ocakları Atatürk için çaldı". 10 November 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Why Erdogan must expand his ultranationalist alliances". Al-Monitor. 19 August 2020. Archived from the original on 2 November 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  8. ^ a b "The Grey Wolves conquering Europe". MENA Research & Study Center. 30 June 2020. Archived from the original on 18 July 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  9. ^ a b "'Our bodies are Turkish, our souls Islamic!' The rise of Turkey's ultra-nationalists". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  10. ^ "France has banned the 'Grey Wolves' – but who are they?". Archived from the original on 12 November 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
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  12. ^ "TRENDS Research and Advisory - The Grey Wolves: Erdoğan's extremist arm in Europe". Trendsresearch.org. Archived from the original on 12 November 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
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  19. ^ Rabasa, Angel; Larrabee, F. Stephen (2008). The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation. ISBN 9780833044570. In the 1978 Kahramanmaraş incident, rightwing "Grey Wolves" killed about 100 left-wing activists.
  20. ^ Orhan Kemal Cengiz (25 December 2012). "Why was the commemoration for the Maraş massacre banned?". Today's Zaman. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015. This was the beginning of the massacre; later on, angry mobs led by grey wolves scattered into the city, killing and raping hundreds of Alevis.
  21. ^ "Hundreds march against Syrian refugees". Hürriyet Daily News. via Doğan News Agency. 14 July 2014. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  22. ^ Yalçın, Zübeyde. "Anti-Syrian protests sign of growing tensions in southern Turkey". Daily Sabah. No. 21 July 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
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  24. ^ Girit, Selin (9 July 2015). "China-Turkey relationship strained over Uighurs". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 January 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  25. ^ Erdemir, Aykan; Tahiroglu, Merve (30 July 2015). "Turkish Grey Wolves target 'Chinese'". Politico. Archived from the original on 18 December 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  26. ^ a b "Murder in Anatolia: Christian missionaries and Turkish ultranationalism" (PDF). Berlin: European Stability Initiative. 12 January 2011. pp. 1–2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2014. Both in Malatya and in Istanbul the local branches of the ultranationalist Grey Wolf youth organisation (Ulku Ocaklari) had also organised demonstrations against Christians.
  27. ^ "Turkey's ruling coalition now targets Christians with 'Grey Wolves' terror group". India Narrative. 5 October 2021. Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h i Naylor, R. T. (2006). "Striking Out! – Al-Qaida Cells in the Global Petrie Dish". Satanic Purses: Money, Myth, and Misinformation in the War on Terror. Montreal: McGill–Queen's University Press. p. 296. ISBN 9780773531505. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
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  31. ^ Vermaat, Emerson (19 July 2010). "Resurgence of Anti-Semitism in Turkey and Amsterdam". Investigative Project on Terrorism. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014.
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  37. ^ "Thai police look into Turkish connection in Bangkok blast". Reuters. 27 August 2015. Archived from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2021. ...the most likely perpetrators were members of an ultra-nationalist Turkish organization called the Grey Wolves...
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  40. ^ a b c "France bans Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves". Deutsche Welle. 4 November 2020. Archived from the original on 12 June 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
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  42. ^ a b "Graue Wölfe – die größte rechtsextreme Organisation in Deutschland" (in German). Federal Agency for Civic Education. 24 November 2017. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020.
  43. ^ Naylor, R. T. (1999). Economic Warfare: Sanctions, Embargo Busting, and Their Human Cost. Boston: Northeastern University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-55553-499-8. For the next decade [after the 1980 coup] most operations were conducted from Germany. There, sheltering among the large emigre Turkish community, the Grey Wolves raised money from extortion, alien smuggling and heroin trafficking while attacking left-wing and pro-Soviet targets.
  44. ^ a b c "The national list of banned terrorist organizations in Kazakhstan". egov.kz. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 18 April 2024. II.
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  46. ^ a b "Video shows Turkish police singing Grey Wolf march". Hürriyet Daily News. 25 April 2011. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. The Grey Wolves, also commonly referred to as the Ülkü Ocakları (Idealist Hearths), are a youth organization with close links to the MHP. Alt URL Archived 1 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  47. ^ Benam, Cigdem (Winter 2017). "An Intellectual History of Turkish Nationalism: Between Turkish Ethnicity and Islamic Identity by Umut Uzer (review)". The Middle East Journal. 71 (1): 165–166. ...a group called the Idealist Hearths (Ülkü Ocakları), widely known as the Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar).
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  51. ^ Bozay, Kemal (24 November 2017). "Graue Wölfe – die größte rechtsextreme Organisation in Deutschland" [Grey Wolves - the largest right-wing extremist organisation in Germany]. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (in German). Retrieved 19 January 2024.
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  53. ^ Slomp, Hans (2011). Europe, a Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics, Volume 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 744. ISBN 978-0-313-39181-1. Grey Wolves Turkish terrorist group (Bozkurtlar in Turkish), the youth organization of an extreme right party...
  54. ^ "Siirt Ülkü Ocakları Başkanı Yeşilkök". Radikal (in Turkish). 2 November 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2014. Siirt Ülkü Ocakları Başkanı Abidin Yeşilkök, "Ülkü Ocakları olarak siyasal bir kuruluş değiliz. Ülkü Ocakları Eğitim ve Kültür Vakfıyız" dedi.
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  56. ^ Goksedef, Ece (15 August 2018). "The ultra-nationalist Turkish mob boss Erdogan can't touch". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020.
  57. ^ Mani, B. Venkat (2002). On the Question, "what is Turkish-German?" Minority Literatures and the Dialectics of Exclusion. Stanford University. p. 89. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2020. while the Grey Wolves target their vendetta against the communists, Greeks, and the Armenians.
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