Grey Wolves

The Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar), officially known as Ülkü Ocakları ("Idealist Clubs" or "Idealist Hearths"), is a Turkish neo-fascist organization. Formally a youth organization with close links to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), it has been described as MHP's "militant youth arm", "unofficial militant arm", "paramilitary and terrorist wing". Established by Colonel Alparslan Türkeş in the 1960s, it was the main nationalist force during the political violence in 1976–80 in Turkey. During this period the organization became a "death squad" engaged in "street killings and gunbattles". According to authorities 220 of its members carried out 694 murders of communist and liberal activists and intellectuals. Attacks on university students were commonplace. They killed hundreds of Alevis in the Maraş massacre of 1978, and are alleged to have been behind the Taksim Square massacre of 1977. The masterminds behind the attempt on Pope John Paul II's life 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 scholars and journalists as a terrorist organization.

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 Nagorno-Karabakh War on the Azerbaijani side, and the First and Second Chechen Wars on the Chechen side. After an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in Azerbaijan in 1995, they were banned in that country. Kazakhstan in 2005 also banned the organization, classifying it as a terrorist organization.

Under Devlet Bahçeli, who assumed the leadership of MHP and Gret Wolves after Türkeş's death in 1997, the organization has been reformed. Despite this, its members have been involved in a number of violent attacks and incidents. The organization has also been active in the Turkish-controlled portion of Cyprus. It has affiliated branches in several Western European countries with significant Turkish populations, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany In Germany, they are the largest far-right organization with at least 10,000 members and are monitored by the authorities as an extremist organization. According to sociologist Doğu Ergil (tr) the Grey Wolves are supported by 3.6% of the Turkish electorate as of 2014.

Name and symbolism


The organization's informal name is "inspired by the ancient legend" of Asena, a she-wolf in the Ergenekon, a myth associated with Turkic ethnic origins in Central Asian steppes. In Turkey, wolf also symbolizes honor. They are "characterised by a strong emphasis on leadership and hierarchical, military-like organisation."

The Grey Wolves and MHP supporters are known for their hand sign which represents a wolf head. It is made by holding up the forefinger and little finger.

According to commentator Mehmet Ali Birand, "We cannot say everyone who makes the sign of the wolf or uses force in the name of the country is an Ülkü Ocakları member. Neither can we accuse everyone acting in the name of Ülkü Ocakları of being a member."

The Grey Wolves use, what Ahmet İnsel (tr) calls, "fascist slogans imported from America", such as "Love It or Leave It!" ("Ya Sev Ya Terk Et!") and, mostly in the past, "Communists to Moscow" ("Komünistler Moskova'ya").

Ideology
The ideology of the Grey Wolves "puts accent on Turkish history insisting on its glorious days and exploiting events such as the establishment of the first Turkish States in Central Asia, almost tracing a 'Turkish race'. At the same time, its conception of the Turkish nation is blended with Islam. The principle of what they consider to be the synthesis of Turkishness and Islam is very dominant in their rhetoric and activities. Mottos like 'Your doctor will be a Turk and your medicine will be Islam' reflect their feelings on the issue." Their ideology is based on the "superiority" of the Turkish race and the Turkish nation. The "strive for an 'ideal' Turkish nation, which they define as Sunni-Islamic and mono-ethnic: only inhabited by 'true' Turks. A Turk is everyone who lives in the Turkish territory, feels Turkish and calls him/herself Turkish."



The Grey Wolves are Pan-Turkist and seek to unite the Turkic peoples in one state stretching from the Balkans to Central Asia. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Grey Wolves called for "a revived Turkish empire embracing newly independent Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union." They has proposed "for a pan-Turkish extension of the Turkish nation-state." In 2005 Kaveh Farrokh describes the Grey Wolves as "perhaps the most actively racist pan-Turanian organization in existence today".

With communism increasingly irrelevant, in the 1990s the Grey Wolves turned their focus on the Kurds and participated in the conflict against the PKK in southeastern Turkey. Hürriyet Daily News described the organization as "the staunchest opponent to the Kurdish cause in Turkey." In their ideology and activities, they are hostile to virtually all non-Turkish elements within Turkey, including Kurds, Alevis, Armenians, Greeks,  and Christians in general. They also "embrace anti-Semitic conspiracy theories such as those propounded by the notorious book" The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and have distributed the Turkish translation of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. Furthermore, due to their pan-Turkic agenda they are hostile towards Iran and Russia.

Early history
According to Dr. Ruben Safrastyan, the Director of the Armenian Institute of Oriental Studies, because the Grey Wolves are subtle, and often formally operate as cultural and sports organizations information about them is scarce. They have repeatedly denied their status as a political organization and claim to be a cultural one.

The organization was formed by Colonel Alparslan Türkeş in the late 1960s as the paramilitary wing of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). In 1968 over a hundred camps for ideological and paramilitary training were founded by Türkeş across Turkey. Canefe and Bora describe it as a "grass-roots fascist network", which was "active in different sectors of the economy, schools, neighborhood units, etc." It was "well-disciplined para-military organization" and has been compared to the Nazi SS. It was "composed of young Turkish men, often students or rural migrants to Turkey's two largest cities, Istanbul and Ankara." By the late 1970s the organizations had "tens of thousands" of members and, according to journalist Amberin Zaman (tr), "had spun out of state control." In 1973 Israeli orientalist Jacob M. Landau (ger) wrote that the importance of the Grey Wolves "is attested to by the fact that Türkeş himself assumed responsibility for the formation of these youth groups and assigned the supervision of their training to two of his close associates".

Late 1970s violence and the coup of 1980
Members of the Grey Wolves were involved in assassinations of left-wing and liberal activists, intellectuals, labor organizers, ethnic Kurds, officials, journalists during the political violence between 1976 and 1980. "During this period, the Gray Wolves operated with encouragement and protection of the Counter-Guerrilla Organization, a section of the Turkish Army's Special Warfare Department. Working out of the U.S. Military Aid Mission building in Ankara, the Special Warfare Department received funds and training from U.S. advisors to establish 'stay behind' squads of civilian irregulars who were set up to engage in acts of sabotage and resistance in the event of a Soviet invasion. Similar Cold War counter-guerrilla units were created in every member state of the NATO."

Their most significant attack of this period was the Maraş massacre in December 1978 when hundreds of Alevis were killed. They are also "alleged to have been behind" the Taksim Square massacre on May 1, 1977. The conflict between left-wing and right-wing groups eventually resulted in a military intervention in September 1980 when General Kenan Evren led a coup d'état. According to Daniele Ganser, at the time of the coup, there were some 1,700 Grey Wolves organizations, with about 200,000 registered members and a million sympathizers. Following the 1980 coup the Grey Wolves and MHP were banned. Their activism was diminished. The nationalist view was that they were "used and then discarded" by higher powers. After the 1980 coup the Grey Wolves reorganized and largely focused on the Kurdish issue, and rallied for the aggressive denial of the Armenian Genocide and support of the status quo in Cyprus.

1980s
In May 1984 Grey Wolves leader Abdullah Çatlı carried out a bombing of an Armenian Genocide memorial in Alfortville, a Paris suburb.

On June 18, 1988 Kartal Demirağ, a senior member of the Grey Wolves, made an assassination attempt at Prime Minister Turgut Özal's life at the Motherland Party congress. Özal linked it to his visit to Greece, which had occurred three days earlier, saying that the attempt was carried out "by a group opposed to his efforts to improve relations with Greece."

1990s
According to Zürcher and Linden when in March 1995 Sunni radicals attacked Alevis in Istanbul, the local police of Gazi quarter was "heavily infiltrated by Grey Wolves" and it wasn't until they were replaced by military units that peace was restored.

In December 1996, the Grey Wolves attacked left-wing students and teachers at Istanbul University, under alleged police sanction.

In May 1998 the Grey Wolves were involved in two murders. On May 3 a group of Grey Wolves reportedly attacked two students in Bolu who were passing before the organization's building. Kenan Mak, one of the students was killed. On May 5 a worker named Bilal Vural was killed in Istanbul's Şişli district, allegedly by the Grey Wolves. His family claimed that he was "brought several times to the Ülkü Ocakları building where ultranationalists forced him to become a member." They also added that he was killed because he was a member of the Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP). As a result of these murders Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Sinan Yerlikaya and the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) requested the organization to be closed by the authorities.

2000s
In August 2002 Grey Wolves burnt Masoud Barzani's effigy in a protest in Ankara. Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, who had claimed the partly Turkmen-inhabited Iraqi provinces of Kirkuk and Mosul, as part of Iraqi Kurdistan.

In early 2004 the Grey Wolves prevented the screening of Ararat, a film about the Armenian Genocide, in Turkey.

On September 6, 2005 a group of nationalists, led by a Grey Wolves leader Levent Temiz, stormed into an Istanbul exhibition commemorating the anti-Greek pogrom of 1955. They threw eggs and teared down photos. The Grey Wolves issued a statement denying involvement.

The Grey Wolves routinely demonstrate outside the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Fener (Phanar), Istanbul and burn the Patriarch in effigy. In October 2005 they staged a rally and proceeding to the gate they laid a black wreath, chanting "Patriarch Leave" and "Patriarchate to Greece", inaugurating the campaign for the collection of signatures to oust the Ecumenical Patriarchate from Istanbul. As of 2006 the Grey Wolves claimed to have collected more than 5 million signatures for the withdrawal of the Greek Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

In late November 2006 the Grey Wolves staged protests against Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey. On November 22 tens of protesters occupied Haghia Sophia (Ayasofya) in Istanbul to perform Muslim prayers. They chanted slogans against the Pope, such as "Don't make a mistake Pope, don't try our patience". Reuters reported that the event was organized by Alperen Ocakları, considered an offshoot of the Grey Wolves. Police arrested around 40 protesters for violating the ban on prayers in the former Byzantine church, which was converted into a museum in the 1930s.

2010s
On November 9, 2010 Hasan Şimşek, a Grey Wolves member and a student, was killed at the Kütahya Dumlupınar University during an apparent fight between Kurdish and Turkish nationalist student groups. At his funeral MHP leader Bahçeli stated that "We expect every kind of measure to be taken to prevent the expansion of the PKK mob, who have a tendency to grow in the universities." Violence between Turkish and Kurdish students also broke out in Marmara University of Istanbul on November 12.

On April 24, 2011 Sevag Balıkçı, a solder of Armenian descent, was killed in service in the Turkish army by Kıvanç Ağaoglu, who was a sympathizer of Abdullah Çatlı, the late Grey Wolves leader. According Ruben Melkonyan, an Armenian expert in Turkish studies, Ağaoglu was a member of the Grey Wolves.

In September 2011 the Ankara Police Department raided 40 locations across Ankara belonging to the Grey Wolves. They took 36 people into custody and seized numerous guns and knives. According to police they were planing an attack on the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (BDP).

On April 24, 2012 on the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day nationalist groups including the Grey Wolves protested against the commemorations of the genocide in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

In October 2013 the Grey Wolves demonstrated against the Kurdish–Turkish peace process across Turkey.

In July 2014 around a thousand people demonstrated in Kahramanmaraş against the presence of Syrian refugees that have fled the civil war in their country. Many protesters made the sign of the Grey Wolves, blocked roads in the city and removed Arabic-language signs from stores. AKP lawyer Mahir Ünal commented: "This doesn't make them idealists [i.e. members of the Grey Wolves] but it is certain some people's attempt to show it like something the idealists did."

In October 2014 the Grey Wolves were involved in deadly clashes and riots when Kurds in various cities of Turkey demonstrated against Turkey's non-intervention policy during the Siege of Kobanî. Milliyet reported that a group of Grey Wolves in Sancaktepe, Istanbul attempted to lynch a young man.

Links to the Turkish government and NATO
"In the late 1970s, former military prosecutor and Turkish Supreme Court Justice Emin Değer documented collaboration between the Grey Wolves" and the 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—and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Martin A. Lee writes that the Counter-Guerrilla "handed out weapons to the Grey Wolves and other right-wing terrorist groups. These shadowy operations mainly engaged in the surveillance, persecution and torture of Turkish leftists, according to retired army commander Talat Turhan, the author of three books on counter-guerrilla activities in Turkey." Lee writes that "the Counter-Guerrilla Organization supplied weapons to the Gray Wolves", while Tom Burghardt of Global Research writes that Operation Gladio networks worked directly with the Grey Wolves. According to Tim Jacoby, the CIA "overtly transferred guns and explosives to Grey Wolf units through its agent, Frank Terpil" in the 1970s.

During the Susurluk scandal of 1996 the Grey Wolves were accused of being members of the Counter-Guerrilla, the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio. Abdullah Çatlı, second in command of the Grey Wolves leadership, was killed during the Susurluk car crash, which sparked the scandal. The report of the Turkish National Assembly's investigative committee in April 1997 on the Susurluk car crash, which instigated the scandal, "offered considerable evidence of close ties between state authorities and criminal gangs, including the use of the Grey Wolves to carry out illegal activities."

"A court document in the Ergenekon case revealed in 2008 that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) had paid regular salaries to ultranationalists to carry out illegal operations [including assassinations and kidnappings]. Some members of a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) affiliated extremist nationalist group, the Grey Wolves, were armed and funded by the state to carry out political murders." They mostly targeted members of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), which attacked Turkish embassies abroad in retaliation of the denial of the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish intelligence services also made use of the Grey Wolves in conflict against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) by offering them amnesty in exchange.

Azerbaijan
During the Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–94), around 200 members of the Grey Wolves fought on the Azerbaijani side against the Armenian forces. Türkeş "acknowledged that his followers were fighting in Karabagh with Azerbaijani forces, though it was reported in late 1992 that they returned to Turkey." Hayk Demoyan, in his 2006 book about the Turkish involvement in the Karabakh conflict cites a 1993 article the Russian newspaper Segodnya (ru) in claiming that around 15,000 members of the Grey Wolves were under the direct command of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces and formed "independent armed groups".

In 1993, Azerbaijani Interior Minister Isgandar Hamidov established the National Democratic Party, which was known as Boz Qurd ("Grey Wolves"). According to Russian political scientist Stanislav Cherniavsky the Azerbaijani Grey Wolves grew out of the Popular Front in 1992 and "considered itself a branch of the Turkish Grey Wolves." It was registered by the Justice Ministry in 1994. In interviews in 1992-93 Hamidov denied any connection with the Turkish organization stating that "Grey Wolves of Azerbaijan are not subordinate to the Turkish group".

In March 1995, a coup d'état attempt against President Heydar Aliyev's government was staged in Baku by Colonel Rovshan Javadov, Turkish far-right organizations (including the Grey Wolves), and the Azerbaijani opposition. According to Thomas de Waal, the "shadowy backers of this uprising were never identified but appear to have included rogue elements of the Turkish security establishment and members of the 'Gray Wolves' Bozkurt movement. Among those arrested and jailed this time was the local Bozkurt leader and former interior minister" Hamidov. After the coup attempt Hamidov was jailed, while the Azerbaijani Supreme Court formally abolished the party due to its links to the Turkish Grey Wolves, which it considered to be a terrorist organization. Hamidov was freed by the amnesty granted by President Ilham Aliyev. In 2008 Hamidov retired from politics and as president of the party, which had been inactive since. According to a 2007 article by Mahammad Imanli and Shahin Nasrullayev the Grey Wolves no longer operate in Azerbaijan.

Chechnya
Members of the Grey Wolves fought on the Chechen separatist side during the First Chechen War (1994-96) and the Second Chechen War (1999-2000). CNN reported in 2000 that the Grey Wolves with most pro-Chechen stance were those affiliated with the Islamist Great Union Party (BBP), which had split from MHP in 1993. The article suggested that they "run the mosques and commercial activities in some parts of Istanbul. It is in these mosques, in the suburbs of the city, that offerings are collected after daily prayers for the Chechen refugees. It is money that probably also goes to soldiers on the front lines."

Azerbaijani Grey Wolves also participated in the fight against Russia. In January 1995 Kommersant cited the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) in stating that the Azerbaijani Grey Wolves sent 80 fighters to Chechnya. Another 270 fighters went to Chechnya in December of that year.

Georgian Minister of State Security Valery Khaburdania stated in 2002 that the Grey Wolves were the "conduit of assistance" to the Chechen militants.

China
The Grey Wolves "set up training camps in Central Asia for youths from Turkic language groups" following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Failing to find support in post-Soviet Central Asian republics, they targeted the Uyghurs, mostly concentrated in western Chinese province of Xinjiang. They support the East Turkestan independence movement, which at times turns violent (such as during the July 2009 Ürümqi riots). In this scope, the Grey Wolves' European affiliates attacked Chinese tourists in the Netherlands. According to a 2012 report by South Asia Analysis Group, the Eastern Turkestan Grey Wolf Party (Uyghur: Sharki Turkistan Bozkurt Partiyesi}) is among the "major terrorist/extremist organisations of Xinjiang". The same report states that it "used to have some following in Urumchi" and was "reportedly backed by teachers, students and other intellectuals." Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies suggests they are "highly limited in their reach and support base".

Cyprus


Following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 the Grey Wolves "continued to play a role in radicalizing the dispute with Greek Cypriots by actively engaging in violence on the island." They supported Rauf Denktaş, the President of the unrecognized Northern Cyprus between 1983 and 2005, and were involved in state-sponsored "terror of citizens".

In July 1996, Kutlu Adali, a Turkish Cypriot journalist who had criticized Denktaş and his policies, was killed by the Grey Wolves, according to some sources.

In August 1996, the Grey Wolves were involved in an attack on a protest of Greek Cypriots against the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus. Tassos Isaac, a Greek protester, was allegedly beaten to death by the Grey Wolves in the United Nations Buffer Zone.

In July 1997 the Grey Wolves clashed in Northern Cyprus with Kurdish university students who protested against Turkey's invasion of northern Iraq in search of the PKK.

On October 17, 2003 Murat Kanatlı, Turkish Cypriot journalist and editor of the opposition newspaper Yeniçağ, was "attacked by a group of 20-30 persons belonging to the Grey Wolves" according to the International Press Institute (IPI). Kanatlı had covered the Grey Wolves' demonstration against the "intervention" of the European Union and the United States in elections in Northern Cyprus.

During the 2004 referendum on the Annan Plan, the Grey Wolves "actively advocated a 'no' vote". " During the pre-voting period at least 50 Grey Wolves activists arrived in Northern Cyprus and caused riots against pro-ratification supporters. They were "suspected of beating up motorcyclists carrying 'vote yes' banners".

The Turkish Cypriot daily Afrika reported in October 2013 that the Grey Wolves opened a new headquarters in North Nicosia's Köşklüçiftlik district. During the opening ceremony Adem Yurdagül, the chairman of the Grey Wolves in Cyprus delivered a speech, while slogans like "Nicosia plain is home of Grey Wolves", "Cyprus is Turkish and will remain Turkish", "We are soldiers of [Alparslan] Türkeş", "The Grey Wolves Movement cannot be prevented" were chanted.

In November 2013 a fight broke out between members of the Grey Wolves and Kurdish students at the Near East University in North Nicosia resulting in arrest of 23 persons. According to the newspaper Havadis, "the cause of the fight was allegations by the Grey wolves' organization that some Kurdish students broke the windows of the Grey wolves organization’s building. Around 500 students went out on the streets holding clubs and rocks and the police asked for reinforcement in order to put them under control."

Europe
As of 1993 "Authorities have linked no less than two dozen assassinations of Turks in the West to the Grey Wolves."

Belgium
The Belçika Türk Federasyonu (BTF) is considered to be "affiliated with or sympathetic" to the Grey Wolves. According a study, its aim is "to foster loyalty among young people of Turkish origin to their ancestral culture, religion and history and to keep alive the Turkish identity in Europe. BTF claims to oppose not the integration of Belgian-Turks into their host society but rather their assimilation by it." Its activities mostly focus on "issues relevant to Turkish national sensitivities". For instance, it has demonstrated against the erection of an Armenian Genocide memorial in Brussels. During the municipal elections of 2006 two member of the BTF came to the attention of the media: Fuat Korkmazer on the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V) list in Ghent and Murat Denizli on the Francophone Socialist Party (PS) list in Schaerbeek, a commune in the Brussels Region. In both cases, political observers saw it as an attempt by Belgian parties to attract far-right Turkish voters in communes where there are numerous Turks, with or without Belgian citizenship. Korkmazer got a very low number of votes, while Denizli was elected but had to resign because it was discovered he had a false address and lived in another commune.

Türk Ocağı (TO), a cultural organization in Ghent is also linked to the Grey Wolves. Its chairman, Mehmet Özçelik, is a member of the Flemish Socialist Party caucus in Berchem. He denies the Armenian Genocide and is known to have attended a Brussels meeting in honor of the late Alparslan Türkes.

According to Paul Beliën, the Grey Wolves are "said to have organised the anti-Kurdish riots and raids on Kurdish shops in Brussels in 1994 and 1998."

France
According to Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure members of the Grey Wolves partook in a January 21, 2012 demonstration in Paris against the adoption of the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in France. According to journalist Jean Eckian, one of the "instigators" Yuzuf Zya Arpacik, had fought in the Karabakh War and against the US forces during the post-invasion insurgency in Iraq.

Germany
The most important Grey Wolves-affiliated Turkish organization in Germany is Türk Federasyon (Avrupa Demokratik Ülkücü Türk Dernekleri Federasyonu, ADÜTDF), which has around 200 member organizations. Founded in 1978 by 64 nationalist organizations it declined in the 1980s, but revived in the 1990s and claimed to have doubled its membership following the Solingen arson attack of 1993. It denies any direct links with the Grey Wolves in Turkey or the MHP, however, in its monthly journal (published since 1996) "articles praising the ideology of MHP and not least stating the evils of the ideologies of left-wing and Kurdish organizations in Turkey and Germany" have appeared. Furthermore, in May 1998 MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli addressed a crowd of 15,000 German Turks at the Türk Federasyon annual meeting. Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Reinhold Gall (ger) stated that Türk Federasyon is a "melting pot of extreme nationalists with Turkish migrant background".

According to Neues Deutschland, as of 2013, the Grey Wolves are the largest far-right organization in Germany by membership (with at least 10,000 members according to a 2014 Der Spiegel article). Its members have actively engaged in attacks on and clashes with Kurds in Germany. Türk Federasyon alone has 7,000 active members (for comparison, the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) has 5,000 members).

As a right-wing extremist group the Grey Wolves are monitored by the German authorities. The Ministry of the Interior (ger) of North Rhine-Westphalia—Germany's most populous state where 70 Grey Wolves associations with more than 2,000 members operated as of 2011 —also monitors the organization. Nevertheless, Serdar Yüksel (ger), a Social Democratic Party member of the North Rhine-Westphalia's state parliament, stated in a 2011 interview that the threat of the Grey Wolves in Germany is underestimated. He said, "When thousands of Turkish right-wing radicals come together in Essen, we're not worried. But if 100 members of NPD march, we immediately organize a counter-demonstration." Olaf Lehne (ger), a Christian Democratic Union member of the North Rhine-Westphalia's state parliament stated in an interview that the Grey Wolves "are in this country, unfortunately, too often ignored." He also added that they have a larger number of sympathizers among young people.

According to the Baden-Württemberg State Government, there are 45 Grey Wolves clubs & associations in that state as of 2012. These associations are often given non-political names (usually cultural and athletic) to conceal their identity. According to educationalist Kemal Bozay, their influence on third generation Turkish youth—who are "looking for an identity"—has "increased significantly".

The 2013 Annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior said that as a result of a June 2013 search by police in three German federal states "two live arms with ammunition, blank-firing guns, batons, electric stun guns and Samurai swords" were seized from members of the Grey Wolves.

Netherlands
As early as 1979 the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy reported that clashes between the Grey Wolves and the Dutch-Turkish Workers Association (HTIB) occurred on May Day celebrations. Organizations such as Turkish Federation Netherlands (Turkse Federatie Nederland, TFN) and Turkish Islamic Federation (Turks Islamitische Federatie) have links to the Grey Wolves. According to Wangmo and Yazilitas, the Grey Wolves in the Netherlands have engaged in a variety of activities, ranging from criminal activities and nationalist propaganda to support of football (soccer) teams. The organization was more influential in the 1990s when many first-generation Turkish immigrants " maintained a deep interest in Turkish politics and who had a deeply felt Turkish identity." Grey Wolves activists have participated—with varying successes—in the local politics of several Dutch municipalities.

Cultural references

 * In the 2002 film Aram a French-Armenian fighter named Levon attempts to kill a high level Turkish general who is the head of Grey Wolves.
 * In the 2003 novel L'Empire des loups ("Empire of the Wolves") by Jean-Christophe Grangé the Grey Wolves are involved in a murder a woman. The 2005 film Empire of the Wolves is based on the same-name novel by Grangé.