Erdoğan ally condemns U.S. bill urging ban on ultranationalist Grey Wolves

 

• Sep 28 2021 07:46 Gmt+3
• Last Updated On: Sep 28 2021 08:29 Gmt+3

The leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on Tuesday condemned a U.S. bill calling for a ban on the Turkish neo-nationalist Grey Wolves movement, to which the MHP is linked.

The United States will never be able to “intimidate’’ the nationalist and neo-nationalist movements of Turkey, which are the “iron fist of the Turkish nation,’’ Diken news site cited Devlet Bahçeli, the junior coalition partner of President Recep Erdoğan, as saying in a statement.

A right-wing paramilitary organisation founded in Turkey by fierce anti-communists during the Cold War in the mid-1960s, the Grey Wolves have long been active in Europe, where it is linked to violent confrontations.

The group, the de facto youth organisation of the MHP, were also heavily associated with political violence that swept Turkey in the 1970s, targeting leftist activists and ethnic minorities in assaults, murders and arsons.

Earlier this month, U.S. Democratic Representative Dina Titus proposed an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defence Authorisation to ban the Grey Wolves, while asking U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to report to Congress the within 180 days the activities of the group, "including a review of the criteria met for designation as a foreign terrorist organisation.’’

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Rules has greenlighted the proposal last week, paving the way for the bill to be debated on House floor.

Bahçeli said that the Biden administration maintained an incurable ‘’allergy’’ for Turkey and the ruling alliance of the country, while pointing to a similar bill proposed by Germany’s left for a ban on the Grey Wolves.

The Grey Wolves have been banned in Austria since 2019, while left-wing parties called for the group to be banned in Germany in 2018.

Germany’s political opposition, including the left (Die Like) parliamentary group, last year reiterated a call for the group to be banned.

Erdoğan ally condemns U.S. bill urging ban on ultranationalist Grey Wolves | Ahval (ahvalnews.com)