Grey Wolves Symbols

The Grey Wolves (Ülkü Ocakları; “Idealist Hearths”) is a Turkish far-right movement active in Turkey and in the Turkish diaspora.

The Grey Wolves grew out of what is now the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). In the 1970s and 1980s, members of the movement were involved in a number of acts of political violence in Turkey and were responsible for hundreds of deaths.

The contemporary movement is splintered into a number of different groups and organisations with various degrees of affiliation with a far-right Turkish nationalist ideology both in Turkey and in the diaspora. The Grey Wolves show hostility towards groups of people including perceived left-wing activists and politicians, Armenians, Kurds, Alevis (a religious minority), Jews, Christians and others.

The Grey Wolves’ primary symbol is of a wolf in a crescent moon, as well as the movement’s “wolf” hand gesture, which are both drawn from Turkish mythology. Austria banned the movement’s wolf hand gesture in 2019; France banned the entire movement in 2020, claiming it was responsible for hate speech and violence.

While commonly referred to as “Grey Wolves” in English, the term is seldom used in Turkish discourse to describe the contemporary movement.