Grey Wolves
The National Movement Party ("Milliyetci Hareket Partisi", MHP, aka Nationalist Action Party), founded by Alparslan Turkes in the 1960s, like all other parties, was banned after the military coup of September 12, 1980. The National Workers Party ("Milliyetci Calisma Partisi", MCP) was founded in 1983 as a successor to the MHP, which as of 1992 is once again known as the MHP. A significant pillar of the MHP's ideology is the creation of the Turan, the Great Turkish Empire, including Turkish peoples in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The MHP supports the government's military approach to an 11-year insurgency by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey, and it opposes any concessions to Kurdish separatists.
The unofficial militant arm of the MHP -- known as the Grey Wolves after a legendary she-wolf that led captive Central Asian Turks to freedom -- has been involved in street killings and gunbattles with leftists. Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot and wounded
Pope John Paul II in 1981, was a former Grey Wolf. The Grey Wolves have been accused of assassinating, on July 6, 1996, the prominent Turkish Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adali, because of his criticism of the Denktash regime and, more generally, of Turkey's policies in Cyprus.
In 1996 a turkish deputy from Tansu Ciller's True Path Party (DYP) revealed that Abdullah Chatli, the leader of the Grey Wolves, was are responsible for arson fires in Greece's islands. Catli was killed in a 1996 car accident in Turkey which brought to light the relations between Turkish mafia and the government.
Sources and Resources
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/grey_wolves.htm
Created by John Pike
Maintained by Webmaster
Updated Saturday, August 08, 1998 7:35:41 AM
