Grey Wolves
Encyclopedia
The Idealist Youth commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism
. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.
, a female wolf
in mythology associated with Turkic
ethnic origins. Their formal name in Turkish is ülkücüler (idealists) and Ülkücü Hareket (The Idealist Movement), inspired from 19th Century Turkish writer Ziya Gökalp
later developed by 20th century writer Nihal Atsız
Ülkü Ocakları (Forges of Ideal), the proper platform of Grey Wolves, denies any "direct" links with MHP
and presents itself as an independent youth organization. Their female supporters are called Asena.
(MHP) created by Alparslan Türkeş
in 1969. A significant pillar the MHP's ideology is the dream of creating the Turan
, the "Great Turkish Empire", including all Turkic peoples
mainly in the successor Central Asia
n countries of the former Soviet Union
as well as the Caucasus
and the Uygurs
' homeland of East Turkestan
in the Xinjiang
province of Northwestern China
.
The Grey Wolves also rally around Pan-Turkic Causes
including: the economic isolation and territorial integrity of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
; the Armenia
n military occupation
of Nagorno-Karabakh
and surrounding areas, and the subsequent displacement of Azeri civilians; the assimilation campaigns
and suppression of the Iraqi Turkmens in Kirkuk
and adjacent regions in Northern Iraq
by the Kurdistan Regional Government
; and the suppression of Uygur
culture and Chinese colonization
of Eastern Turkestan. The Grey Wolves are also known to be supporters of Azeri activists that campaign for greater cultural rights in Iran
.
They have also been known to support non-Turkic people whom they consider to have kinship with Turkish people
. It is for this reason that Grey Wolves have supported the Chechen Independence Struggle
, the KLA
-led Albanian
movement in Kosovo
, and the Bosniaks
' resistance in the Bosnian War
.
(who was also the leader of Counter-Guerrilla) there were some 1,700 Grey Wolves organizations, with about 200,000 registered members and a million sympathisers. Grey Wolves, also known as Commandos conducted assassinations against left-wing intellectuals and academics in Turkey. The torturing and killing of many left-wing partisans and sympathisers are among their crimes. Grey Wolves, besides assassinations and bombings, also participated in massacres of minority community members in Çorum and in Maraş
. However, after being useful for Kenan Evren's strategy of tension
, the leader of the Counter-Guerrilla turned president outlawed the MHP and the Grey Wolves. Colonel Türkeş and other Grey Wolves were arrested. In its indictment of the MHP in May 1981, the Turkish military government charged 220 members of the MHP and its affiliates for 694 murders. However, imprisoned Grey Wolves members were offered amnesty if they accepted to fight the Kurdish
separatism and the PKK
, and ASALA
("Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia").
The Grey Wolves then lost many of its core cadres to the neo-liberal Motherland Party
or various vestiges of the Islamist movement. In 1983, the Nationalist Task Party ("Milliyetçi Çalışma Partisi", MÇP) was founded as a successor to the MHP; as of 1992 it is again known as the MHP.
separatists, namely the PKK
.
The paramilitary wing of the Grey Wolves have been utilized by the Turkish intelligence services to assassinate PKK leaders. The fact that Counter-Guerrilla had engaged in torture was confirmed by Talat Turhan, a former Turkish colonel.
The Grey Wolves have also raised funds for Chechen
guerrilla separatists, whom they consider their brothers.
; the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio
. By using such paramilitary structures, the leaders were able to maintain a facade of plausible deniability
.
Numerous sources show that the MHP and the Grey Wolves had ties to the Turkish mafia
, to the Turkish intelligence services as well as to the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Former military public attorney and member of the Turkish Supreme Court
, Emin Değer, has established that the Grey Wolves collaborated with the counter-insurgency
governmental forces, as well as the close ties between these state security forces and the CIA. Indeed, Martin A. Lee
also wrote that the para-military wing of the Grey Wolves were covertly supported by the CIA, which worked with the Gladio network, while a December 5, 1990 article by the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung
stated that the Counter-Guerrilla had their headquarters in the building of the US DIA military secret service
. Le Monde diplomatique
wrote that "the CIA used proponents of the Greater Turkey to stir up anti-sovietic
passions at the heart of Turkish Muslim minorities in the Soviet Union". Thus, in 1992, colonel Türkes went to newly-independent Azerbaijan
, where he was acclaimed as a hero. He supported Grey Wolves sympathiser Abulfaz Elchibey's candidacy to the presidency. Once elected, Elchibey chose as ministry of Interior İsgandar Hamidov
, a member of the Grey Wolves who plead for the creation of a Greater Turkey which would include northern Iran
and extend itself to Siberia
, Central Asia
, Afghanistan
, Pakistan
and north western China
(Uighuristan). Isgandar Hamidov
resigned in April 1993 after having threatened Armenia
with a nuclear strike
.
According to Daniele Ganser, a researcher at the ETH Zürich
University, the founder of the Grey Wolves, Alparslan Türkeş
was a member of Counter-Guerrilla
, the Turkish branch of Gladio, a stay-behind
NATO anti-communist paramilitary organization which was supposed to prepare networks for guerrilla warfare
in case of a Soviet invasion. Le Monde diplomatique
confirms that the Grey Wolves were infiltrated and manipulated by Gladio, and that important Grey Wolves member Abdullah Çatlı
had worked with Gladio. According to the same article, Abdullah Çatlı met with Italian international terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie
, who, aside from taking part in Italy' strategy of tension, also maintained links with Pinochet
's DINA and participated in the Argentinian dirty war
. However, it is alleged that in Italy
and Turkey, Gladio supported a strategy of tension
which used false flag
terrorist attacks in order to discredit the communist movement.
during the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, and still operate in Azerbaijan, although their name has been changed to the Azerbaijan National Democrat Party
.
and Murat Denizli on the Francophone Socialist Party list in Schaerbeek, a commune in the Brussels Region. In both cases, political observers considered it was an attempt by Belgian parties to attract far right Turkish voters in communes where there are numerous Turks, with or without the Belgian citizenship. Korkmazer got a very low number of votes, Denizli was elected but had to resign because it was discovered he had a false address and lived in another commune.
, the 1981 attempt on Pope John Paul II
's life, by Grey Wolves member Mehmet Ali Ağca
, may have been related to Gladio. Ali Ağca would in this case have been manipulated by NATO's clandestine structure, in an attempt to fuel Italy's strategy of tension, which ended with the 1980 Bologna massacre
. Komissar underlines the fact that Ali Ağca had worked with Abdullah Çatlı in the January 1, 1979 murder of Abdi İpekçi
, the editor of left-wing newspaper Milliyet
. "Çatlı then reportedly helped organize Ağca's escape from an Istanbul military prison, and some have suggested Çatlı was even involved in the Pope's assassination attempt", reports Lucy Komisar. Also adding, that at the scene of the Mercedes-Benz crash where Çatlı died, he was found with a passport under the name of "Mehmet Özbay" - an alias also used by Mehmet Ali Ağca.
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.
Name
They are named after AsenaAsena
Asena is the name of one of the ten sons, whom mythical female wolf gave birth to, in old Turkic mythology. It is associated with a Göktürk ethnogenic myth "full of shamanic symbolism"...
, a female wolf
Gray Wolf
The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...
in mythology associated with Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
ethnic origins. Their formal name in Turkish is ülkücüler (idealists) and Ülkücü Hareket (The Idealist Movement), inspired from 19th Century Turkish writer Ziya Gökalp
Ziya Gökalp
Ziya Gökalp was a Turkish sociologist, writer, poet, and political activist. In 1908, after the Young Turk revolution, he adopted the pen name Gökalp , which he retained for the rest of his life...
later developed by 20th century writer Nihal Atsız
Ülkü Ocakları (Forges of Ideal), the proper platform of Grey Wolves, denies any "direct" links with MHP
Nationalist Movement Party
The Nationalist Movement Party , is a far-right political party in Turkey.In the 2002 general elections, the party had lost its 129 seats as it had won only 8.34% of the national vote...
and presents itself as an independent youth organization. Their female supporters are called Asena.
Foundation and ideology
The Grey Wolves were founded as the youth organization of the Nationalist Movement PartyNationalist Movement Party
The Nationalist Movement Party , is a far-right political party in Turkey.In the 2002 general elections, the party had lost its 129 seats as it had won only 8.34% of the national vote...
(MHP) created by Alparslan Türkeş
Alparslan Türkes
Alparslan Türkeş was a Cypriot-born Turkish nationalist politician who was the founder and former president of the Nationalist Movement Party party...
in 1969. A significant pillar the MHP's ideology is the dream of creating the Turan
Turan
Tūrān is the Persian name for Central Asia, literally meaning "the land of the Tur". As described below, the original Turanians are an Iranian tribe of the Avestan age. As a people the "Turanian" are one of the two Iranian peoples both descending from the Persian Fereydun but with different...
, the "Great Turkish Empire", including all Turkic peoples
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
mainly in the successor Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
n countries of the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as well as the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
and the Uygurs
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
' homeland of East Turkestan
East Turkestan
East Turkestan is a controversial political term with multiple meanings depending on context and usage...
in the Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
province of Northwestern China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
The Grey Wolves also rally around Pan-Turkic Causes
Pan-Turkism
Pan-Turkism is a nationalist movement that emerged in 1880s among the Turkic intellectuals of the Russian Empire, with the aim of cultural and political unification of all Turkic peoples.-Name:...
including: the economic isolation and territorial integrity of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus or North Cyprus , officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus , is a self-declared state that comprises the northeastern part of the island of Cyprus...
; the Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n military occupation
Military occupation
Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...
of Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
and surrounding areas, and the subsequent displacement of Azeri civilians; the assimilation campaigns
Kurdification
Kurdification is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something ethnically non-Kurdish is made to become Kurdish, usually in contexts of post-Saddam Iraq, in particular in relation to Assyrian Christians, Shabaks and Iraqi Turkmen.- See also :...
and suppression of the Iraqi Turkmens in Kirkuk
Kirkuk
Kirkuk is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, north of the capital, Baghdad...
and adjacent regions in Northern Iraq
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
by the Kurdistan Regional Government
Kurdistan Regional Government
The Kurdistan Regional Government , , is the official ruling body of the predominantly Kurds-populated Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq...
; and the suppression of Uygur
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
culture and Chinese colonization
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
of Eastern Turkestan. The Grey Wolves are also known to be supporters of Azeri activists that campaign for greater cultural rights in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
They have also been known to support non-Turkic people whom they consider to have kinship with Turkish people
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
. It is for this reason that Grey Wolves have supported the Chechen Independence Struggle
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
, the KLA
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
-led Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
movement in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, and the Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
' resistance in the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
.
Role in 1980 military coup
At the time of the military coup of September 12, 1980, led by general Kenan EvrenKenan Evren
Ahmet Kenan Evren was the seventh President of Turkey; a post he assumed by leading the 1980 military coup. He was also the last president to be born in the Ottoman Empire.- Biography :...
(who was also the leader of Counter-Guerrilla) there were some 1,700 Grey Wolves organizations, with about 200,000 registered members and a million sympathisers. Grey Wolves, also known as Commandos conducted assassinations against left-wing intellectuals and academics in Turkey. The torturing and killing of many left-wing partisans and sympathisers are among their crimes. Grey Wolves, besides assassinations and bombings, also participated in massacres of minority community members in Çorum and in Maraş
Maraş Massacre
The Maraş Massacre or Kahramanmaraş Massacre of December 1978 was the massacre of more than hundred civilians, mostly Alevis, a minority Muslim group in Turkey. The prime perpetrators were Greywolves...
. However, after being useful for Kenan Evren's strategy of tension
Strategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
, the leader of the Counter-Guerrilla turned president outlawed the MHP and the Grey Wolves. Colonel Türkeş and other Grey Wolves were arrested. In its indictment of the MHP in May 1981, the Turkish military government charged 220 members of the MHP and its affiliates for 694 murders. However, imprisoned Grey Wolves members were offered amnesty if they accepted to fight the Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
separatism and the PKK
Kurdistan Workers Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
, and ASALA
Asala
Asala may refer to:* Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization.* Asalah Nasri, Syrian singer* Al Asalah, a Salafist political party in Bahrain...
("Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia").
The Grey Wolves then lost many of its core cadres to the neo-liberal Motherland Party
Motherland Party (Turkey)
The Motherland Party, was a political party in Turkey. It was founded in 1983 by Turgut Özal. It was merged to Democratic Party in October 2009...
or various vestiges of the Islamist movement. In 1983, the Nationalist Task Party ("Milliyetçi Çalışma Partisi", MÇP) was founded as a successor to the MHP; as of 1992 it is again known as the MHP.
Role in Kurdish affairs
The MHP is strongly opposed to KurdishKurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
separatists, namely the PKK
Kurdistan Workers Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
.
The paramilitary wing of the Grey Wolves have been utilized by the Turkish intelligence services to assassinate PKK leaders. The fact that Counter-Guerrilla had engaged in torture was confirmed by Talat Turhan, a former Turkish colonel.
Activities to date
- On a global scale, the Grey Wolves are suspected to have been responsible for numerous political assassinations and disappearances of Turkish and Kurdish human rights activists, and are known to have ties with the Turkish mafia.
The Grey Wolves have also raised funds for Chechen
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
guerrilla separatists, whom they consider their brothers.
- In 1996 the Grey Wolves were involved in an attack on a protest of Greek Cypriots against the occupation of Cyprus. One protester, Tasos Isaac, was beaten to death.
- In December 1996, the Grey Wolves attacked left-wing students and teachers at Istanbul UniversityIstanbul UniversityIstanbul University is a Turkish university located in Istanbul. The main campus is adjacent to Beyazıt Square.- Synopsis :A madrasa, a religious school, was established sometime in the 15th century after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. An institution of higher education named the...
, under police sanction.
- In 2004, the Grey Wolves prevented the screening of Atom EgoyanAtom EgoyanAtom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
's Ararat in Turkey, a film about the Armenian GenocideArmenian GenocideThe Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
.
Links to Operation Gladio
The Grey Wolves were the most visible force at the command of the Counter-GuerrillaCounter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
; the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
. By using such paramilitary structures, the leaders were able to maintain a facade of plausible deniability
Plausible deniability
Plausible deniability is, at root, credible ability to deny a fact or allegation, or to deny previous knowledge of a fact. The term most often refers to the denial of blame in chains of command, where upper rungs quarantine the blame to the lower rungs, and the lower rungs are often inaccessible,...
.
Numerous sources show that the MHP and the Grey Wolves had ties to the Turkish mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, to the Turkish intelligence services as well as to the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Former military public attorney and member of the Turkish Supreme Court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
, Emin Değer, has established that the Grey Wolves collaborated with the counter-insurgency
Counter-insurgency
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...
governmental forces, as well as the close ties between these state security forces and the CIA. Indeed, Martin A. Lee
Martin A. Lee
Martin A. Lee is an American author and activist who has written books and articles on far-right movements, terrorism, media issues, and drug politics.Lee has an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan...
also wrote that the para-military wing of the Grey Wolves were covertly supported by the CIA, which worked with the Gladio network, while a December 5, 1990 article by the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung is a major German language Swiss daily newspaper based in Zurich.One of the oldest newspapers still published, it originally appeared as Zürcher Zeitung, edited by Salomon Gessner, from January 12, 1780, and was renamed to Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1821...
stated that the Counter-Guerrilla had their headquarters in the building of the US DIA military secret service
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...
. Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique is a monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first created mainly for a diplomatic audience as its name implies...
wrote that "the CIA used proponents of the Greater Turkey to stir up anti-sovietic
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
passions at the heart of Turkish Muslim minorities in the Soviet Union". Thus, in 1992, colonel Türkes went to newly-independent Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, where he was acclaimed as a hero. He supported Grey Wolves sympathiser Abulfaz Elchibey's candidacy to the presidency. Once elected, Elchibey chose as ministry of Interior İsgandar Hamidov
Isgandar Hamidov
İsgender Hamidov is a former Minister of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan who served in the Popular Front government of 1992-1993.As a chairman of Azerbaijan National Democrat Party, informally known as the Grey Wolves, Hamidov pled for...
, a member of the Grey Wolves who plead for the creation of a Greater Turkey which would include northern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and extend itself to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and north western China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
(Uighuristan). Isgandar Hamidov
Isgandar Hamidov
İsgender Hamidov is a former Minister of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan who served in the Popular Front government of 1992-1993.As a chairman of Azerbaijan National Democrat Party, informally known as the Grey Wolves, Hamidov pled for...
resigned in April 1993 after having threatened Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
with a nuclear strike
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
.
According to Daniele Ganser, a researcher at the ETH Zürich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
University, the founder of the Grey Wolves, Alparslan Türkeş
Alparslan Türkes
Alparslan Türkeş was a Cypriot-born Turkish nationalist politician who was the founder and former president of the Nationalist Movement Party party...
was a member of Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
, the Turkish branch of Gladio, a stay-behind
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
NATO anti-communist paramilitary organization which was supposed to prepare networks for guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
in case of a Soviet invasion. Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique
Le Monde diplomatique is a monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first created mainly for a diplomatic audience as its name implies...
confirms that the Grey Wolves were infiltrated and manipulated by Gladio, and that important Grey Wolves member Abdullah Çatlı
Abdullah Çatli
Abdullah Çatlı was a Turkish convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party...
had worked with Gladio. According to the same article, Abdullah Çatlı met with Italian international terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie is a neofascist Italian activist . He went on to become a wanted man worldwide, suspect to be involved in Italy's strategy of tension, but was acquitted. He was a friend of Licio Gelli, grandmaster of P2 masonic lodge...
, who, aside from taking part in Italy' strategy of tension, also maintained links with Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
's DINA and participated in the Argentinian dirty war
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
. However, it is alleged that in Italy
History of Italy as a Republic
After World War II and the overthrow of Mussolini's fascist regime, Italy's history was dominated by the Christian Democracy political party for 50 years, while the opposition was led by the Italian Communist Party ; this situation prevailed until the crisis of the Soviet Union and the...
and Turkey, Gladio supported a strategy of tension
Strategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
which used false flag
False flag
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...
terrorist attacks in order to discredit the communist movement.
Azerbaijan
The Grey Wolves have provided support to Azeri forces fighting ArmeniansArmenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
during the Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
conflict, and still operate in Azerbaijan, although their name has been changed to the Azerbaijan National Democrat Party
Azerbaijan National Democrat Party
The Azerbaijan National Democrat Party, formerly known as the Grey Wolves Party, is a political party in Azerbaijan. It is the branch of the Grey Wolves in Azerbaijan. Isgandar Hamidov, a party member, was the Minister of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party government...
.
Belgium
There had already been attempts of infiltration of local politics by Grey Wolves in 2000, but during the municipal elections of 2006 two candidacies of leaders of Idealist clubs were put under the attention of the main media, Fuat Korkmazer on the Flemish Christian Democrats list in GhentGhent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
and Murat Denizli on the Francophone Socialist Party list in Schaerbeek, a commune in the Brussels Region. In both cases, political observers considered it was an attempt by Belgian parties to attract far right Turkish voters in communes where there are numerous Turks, with or without the Belgian citizenship. Korkmazer got a very low number of votes, Denizli was elected but had to resign because it was discovered he had a false address and lived in another commune.
Cyprus
In 1996, the Grey Wolves went to Cyprus in support of Turkish Cypriot protesters. Consequently, they were involved in attacks on Greek Cypriot properties and Greek Cypriot civilians.Germany
The first "Idealist club" was established on 18 June 1978 in Frankfurt as "Federation of Associations of Turkish Democrat Idealists in Europe" (Avrupa Demokratik Ülkücü Türk Dernekleri Federasyonu).Italy
According to investigative reporter Lucy KomisarLucy Komisar
Lucy Komisar is a New York City-based investigative journalist. She writes about offshore banking, corporate secrecy, international money laundering, and how they relate to corporate fraud; international corruption; the looting by dictators; financing of terrorism; international crime including...
, the 1981 attempt on Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
's life, by Grey Wolves member Mehmet Ali Ağca
Mehmet Ali Agca
Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...
, may have been related to Gladio. Ali Ağca would in this case have been manipulated by NATO's clandestine structure, in an attempt to fuel Italy's strategy of tension, which ended with the 1980 Bologna massacre
Bologna massacre
The Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari...
. Komissar underlines the fact that Ali Ağca had worked with Abdullah Çatlı in the January 1, 1979 murder of Abdi İpekçi
Abdi Ipekçi
Abdi İpekçi was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet.-Biography:...
, the editor of left-wing newspaper Milliyet
Milliyet
Milliyet is a major Turkish daily newspaper founded in 1950.-History:Milliyet came to publishing life at the Nuri Akça press in Babıali, Istanbul as a daily private newspaper on 3 May 1950...
. "Çatlı then reportedly helped organize Ağca's escape from an Istanbul military prison, and some have suggested Çatlı was even involved in the Pope's assassination attempt", reports Lucy Komisar. Also adding, that at the scene of the Mercedes-Benz crash where Çatlı died, he was found with a passport under the name of "Mehmet Özbay" - an alias also used by Mehmet Ali Ağca.
The Netherlands
Grey Wolves activists infiltrated with varying successes the local politics of several Dutch municipalities.Assassinations
- Doğan Öz, public prosecutor assassinated on 24 March 1978 by Haluk Kırcı, a Grey Wolves activist.
- Abdi İpekçiAbdi IpekçiAbdi İpekçi was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet.-Biography:...
, journalist assassinated on February 1, 1979 in IstanbulIstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. - Tassos Isaac, Greek Cypriot refugee who participated in a civilian demonstration against the Turkish military presence in Cyprus, murdered on 11 August 1996 by a mob of Grey Wolves in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
- Maraş MassacreMaraş MassacreThe Maraş Massacre or Kahramanmaraş Massacre of December 1978 was the massacre of more than hundred civilians, mostly Alevis, a minority Muslim group in Turkey. The prime perpetrators were Greywolves...
massacre on 21 December 1978 of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Alevis by Grey Wolves. - Kutlu AdaliKutlu AdaliKutlu Adali , b. 1935, Nicosia, assassinated July 6, 1996, Turkish Cypriot journalist, poet and socio-political researcher, peace advocate.-Biography:His family emigrated to Antalya, Turkey when he was three years old...
, Turkish Cypriot journalist, killed July 6, 1996. Adali had criticised the Denktash regime and its policies in Cyprus.
Literature
- Fikret Aslan, Kemal Bozay: Graue Wölfe heulen wieder. Türkische Faschisten und ihre Vernetzung in der BRD. Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89771-004-8. (Grey wolves howl again. Turkish fascists and their networks in Germany.)
- Barbara Hoffmann, Michael Opperskalski, Erden Solmaz: Graue Wölfe. Koranschulen. Idealistenvereine. Türkische Faschisten in der Bundesrepublik.. Köln 1981, ISBN 3-7609-0648-6. (Grey wolves. Koranic schools. Idealists clubs. Turkish fascists in Germany.)
- Jean-Christophe Grangé: Das Imperium der Wölfe. Bergisch Gladbach 2005, ISBN 3-404-15411-8. (The empire of the wolves.)
See also
- List of assassinated people from Turkey
- Nationalist Movement PartyNationalist Movement PartyThe Nationalist Movement Party , is a far-right political party in Turkey.In the 2002 general elections, the party had lost its 129 seats as it had won only 8.34% of the national vote...
- Pan-TurkismPan-TurkismPan-Turkism is a nationalist movement that emerged in 1880s among the Turkic intellectuals of the Russian Empire, with the aim of cultural and political unification of all Turkic peoples.-Name:...
- TuranismTuranismTuranism, or Pan-Turanism, is a political movement for the union of all Turanian peoples. It implies not merely the unity of all Turkic peoples , but also the unification of a wider Turanid "race", also known as the controversial Uralo-Altaic "race," believed to include all peoples speaking...
- Turkish nationalismTurkish nationalismTurkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people, as either a national, ethnic or linguistic group and puts the interests of the state over other influences, including religious ones.-Pan-Turkism:...