European Parliament to vote on inclusion of grey wolves among terrorist and extremist organizations in Europe

BRUSSELS — The European Parliament is preparing to vote on a report that includes recommendations to include the Turkish Grey Wolves group among terrorist and extremist organizations in Europe.

In a report prepared by the European Parliament’s Rapporteur on Turkey Nacho Sánchez Amor, the EU’s highest political body called on the bloc to take action against the group, which it says is of growing concern in Turkey and EU countries.

The report of the European Parliament highlights the threat posed by the pan-Turkic ultranationalist Grey Wolves against Kurds, Armenians, and Greeks.

The organization was founded in 1968 and appeared on the Turkish scene when they engaged in direct conflict with leftists in the 1970s. They are closely associated with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the main partner of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The group has been active and linked to violence in a number of European countries with large Turkish populations.

As Turkey presses forward with its aggressive and adversarial foreign policy and sours its relations with Europe, former allies in Europe who had long ignored the Grey Wolves are beginning to move against the group.

In Early November of last year, the French government imposed a ban on the Grey Wolves and announced the dissolution of the organization after the National Armenian Memorial Centre was defaced with graffiti with giant letters “RTE”, in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the words “Grey Wolves”.

Later that month, the German Bundestag approved a draft law submitted by deputies from five parties that would ban the Grey Wolves.

A day earlier, a motion in the Dutch Tweede Kamer, the second legislative chamber in the Netherlands, voted near unanimously to ask the government to investigate the possibility of outlawing the Grey Wolves in the Netherlands. The only party to vote against the motion was Denk, a Turkish-Dutch political party whose founders are suspected of having close ties to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The salute of Grey Wolves, a hand gesture in the shape of a wolf, was banned in Austria in February 2019.