The Gray Wolves have been based in Turkey within the early Sixties as a youth motion, linked to the ultra-nationalist Turkish celebration MHP (Nationalist Motion Celebration). The MHP was recognized on the time for its pan-Turkish, secular and Kemalist ideology and is right this moment linked to the ruling AK Celebration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Gray Wolves shortly grew to become the paramilitary wing of MHP. The motion has a protracted historical past of violence in opposition to left-wing teams and minorities. For instance, the Gray Wolves have been concerned in a collection of murders within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties. Based on human rights organizations, hundreds of individuals have been killed, together with journalists, intellectuals, college students, Kurds, Armenians and Alevites (a non secular minority).
Most of the group’s main members have been imprisoned after the navy coup of 1980. Since then, the Gray Wolves have been labelled as neo-fascist and racist by many human rights organisations. In the present day, MHP has turn out to be a standard political celebration in Turkey, albeit with an unofficial Gray Wolves wing.
In 2021, the European Parliament referred to as on member states to ban the motion and put it on the fear record. The Gray Wolves motion can also be energetic exterior Turkey in nations with a big Turkish minority. In a number of European nations, sympathizers are being monitored by the intelligence providers.
