This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org.
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Turkish extremist group Grey Wolves finds a favourable climate in Germany
By: []
Date: 2021-12
Since the 1970s, largely unnoticed by the general public, a network of Turkish ethnonationalists known as the Grey Wolves has established itself in Germany, targeting Armenians, Kurds, Jews and political opponents. Today, the group constitutes a major domestic security threat, but one that has been consistently underestimated and neglected.
The Grey Wolves, the paramilitary wing of the neo-fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), were founded in Turkey after the country’s 1960 military coup. More than 100 political murders in Turkey have been attributed to the group.
The Grey Wolves were able to build on the ideological foundations laid during Turkey’s rapprochement with Nazi Germany from 1933 onwards. Their aim (then and now) to establish ‘Turan’ – an ethnonational and Muslim entity that would reach from Anatolia to East China and unite all Turkish ethnicities – was supported by the Nazis. In the 1980s, this form of ultranationalism merged with an increasing Islamism, resulting in a Turkish–Islamic synthesis.
The Turkish–German Recruitment Agreement, signed in 1961, introduced the Gastarbeiter (guest worker) programme, which laid the foundations for the more than three million people of Turkish origin living in Germany today. But the emergence of the Grey Wolves in Germany was not an accidental consequence of migration; rather, it was supported by politicians in both Germany and Turkey.
In 1978, Franz Josef Strauss, head of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria party (CSU) and then prime minister of Bavaria, advocated the creation of a “favourable psychological climate” for the Grey Wolves in the federal republic. This was part of his plan to provide financial support for anti-communist regimes around the world, including that of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and the apartheid regime in South Africa. Domestically, Strauss hoped that the influence of Turkish ultranationalists would curb the politicisation of Turkish migrants, whom he suspected to be Left-leaning.
Umbrella groups in Germany
The Grey Wolves prefer to describe themselves as Ülkücü, which means ‘idealists’. The number of people in Germany who belong to or support the organisation is unclear. According to the Verfassungsschutz, the office for the protection of the constitution, the group has up to 18,000 members, while experts such as Ismail Küpeli estimate it at around 7,000.
As a result of the Verfassungsschutz’s high – and unreliable – estimate, the Grey Wolves have often been described as the largest right-wing extremist group in the country. This sensational claim has also been used by other far-Right extremists such as the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) to pin the country’s rampant antisemitism exclusively on the Muslim community.
The movement’s control of most of the Turkish community’s mosques and centres in Germany allows them to use these spaces for political indoctrination and radicalisation. Grey Wolves’ members (and sympathisers) are mainly to be found within three umbrella organisations in Germany, which operate under the guise of political, religious or cultural associations.
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