Grey Wolves (organization)

The Grey Wolves (Turkish: Bozkurtlar), officially known by the short name Idealist Hearths (Turkish: Ülkü Ocakları, [ylcy odʒakɫaɾɯ]), is a Turkish far-right paramilitary organization and political movement affiliated with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Commonly described as ultra-nationalist, neo-fascist, Islamo-nationalist (but also secular), and racist, it is a youth organization that has been characterized as the MHP's paramilitary or militant wing. Its members deny its political nature and claim it to be a cultural and educational foundation, as per its full official name: Idealist Clubs Educational and Cultural Foundation (Turkish: Ülkü Ocakları Eğitim ve Kültür Vakfı).

Established by Colonel Alparslan Türkeş in the late 1960s, it 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. Scholars have described it as a death squad, responsible for most of the violence and killings in this period. Their most notorious attack, which killed over 100 Alevis, took place in Maraş in December 1978. 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 masterminds behind the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 by Grey Wolves member Mehmet Ali Ağca were not identified and the organization's role remains unclear. Due to these attacks, the Grey Wolves have been described by some scholars, journalists, and governments as a terrorist organization.

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

A staunchly pan-Turkist organization, 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. In 2005, Kazakhstan also banned the organization, classifying it as a terrorist group.

Under Devlet Bahçeli, who assumed the leadership of the MHP and Grey Wolves after Türkeş's death in 1997, the organization has been reformed. According to a 2021 poll, the Grey Wolves are supported by 3.2% of the Turkish electorate. Its members are often involved in attacks and clashes with Kurdish and leftist activists. The organization is also active in the Turkish-occupied portion of Cyprus and has affiliated branches in several Western European countries with significant Turkish communities, such as Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They are the largest right-wing extremist organization in Germany. The Grey Wolves were banned in France in November 2020 for hate speech and political violence, 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.