(Pulled from opendemocracy)
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.