Grey Wolves

Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar in Turkish) is the common name for a member of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party ("Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi", MHP), a right-patriotic) movement founded by Alparslan Turke? in 1961. They are named after a legendary she-wolf Asena that led captive Turks to freedom. Their formal name in Turkish is ülkücüler (the idealists) and Ülkücü Hareket (The Idealist Movement).

Related Topics:
Turkish - Turkish - Nationalist Movement Party - Right - Patriotic - Alparslan Turke? - 1961 - Legend - Wolf - Turks

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Like all other parties, MHP was banned after the military coup of September 12, 1980 and it lost many of its core cadres to the neo-liberal Motherland Party or various vestiges of the Islamist movement. The Nationalist Task Party ("Milliyetçi Çalışma Partisi", MÇP) was founded in 1983 as a successor to the MHP, which as of 1992 is once again known as the MHP.

Related Topics:
Coup - September 12 - 1980 - Neo-liberal - Motherland Party - Islamist - 1983 - 1992

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A significant pillar of the MHP's ideology is the dream of creating the Turan, the Great Turkish Empire, including all Turkish (someimes referred as Turkic) peoples mainly in the successor Central-Asian countries of the former Soviet Union as well as China (the Uighurs of East Turkestan).

Related Topics:
Ideology - Turan - Turkish - Turkic - Soviet Union - China - Uighurs - East Turkestan

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The MHP opposes any concessions to Kurdish separatists, namely the PKK. Inspite of being anti-PKK they have also Kurdish supporters who are mostly of the Zaza-tribe. The Grey Wolves were also accused of being involved in the assassination of members of Turkey's Alevi minority in 1978 in Maraş, but allegations were then dropped. There are also Alevi who support this movement. The Grey Wolves functioned under many names such as TIT (Turkish Brigade of Revenge) and ETKO (Army for the Liberation of Captive Turks).

Related Topics:
PKK - Kurdish - Alevi - 1978 - Maraş

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In 2004, the Grey Wolves successfully prevented the screening of Atom Egoyan's Ararat (movie), a film about the Armenian Genocide http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/2004w01/msg00066.htm, http://adl.hayway.org/default_zone/gb/html/page3590.html.

Related Topics:
Atom Egoyan - Ararat (movie) - Armenian Genocide

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Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, was a symphatiser for Grey Wolves. Some members or syphatisers have been accused of assassinating, on July 6, 1996, the prominent Turkish Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adali, because of his criticism of the Rauf Denktash regime and, more generally, of Turkey's policies in Cyprus.

Related Topics:
Mehmet Ali Ağca - Pope - John Paul II - 1981 - Assassinating - Cypriot - Rauf Denktash - Cyprus

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Originally the Grey wolves were not Islamic at all, but adopted it from the MHP after they inturn adopted it in order to gain more votes.

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