In July 2023, a photo from a gym caused a stir. It showed former German national football player Mesut Özil with a training partner. Özil was smiling and revealing a tattoo on his chest: three crescents and a howling wolf, the symbol of the Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist Turkish movement. With 18,000 members, it is considered the largest right-wing extremist movement in Germany.
At the Berlin Olympic Stadium during the Euro 2024 quarter-final, a sea of red jerseys filled the stands. But since the final whistle, the discussion has been less about the Turkish national team’s quarter-final loss to the Netherlands and more about the gesture thousands of fans made with their hands during the Turkish national anthem: the middle and ring fingers formed the snout, and the index and little fingers the ears of a stylized wolf. The “wolf salute” is the emblem of Turkish right-wing extremists, known as the “Grey Wolves.” National player Merih Demiral had displayed the salute during a goal celebration against Austria a few days earlier, for which he was banned for two matches by UEFA. Before the game, at a fan march, Turkish supporters also made the wolf salute and chanted: “We don’t want refugees in our country!” The police broke up the march. Neither the wolf salute nor the Grey Wolves as an organization are banned in Germany: Why not?
Football has been a recruitment platform for the Grey Wolves for decades. It was clear even before the European Championship that they would use the sporting event intensively for their own public relations. At the European Football Championship in Germany, the Turkish national team played two group stage matches in Dortmund and thus in the Ruhr area, where the Grey Wolves are well-networked.
German citizens with family backgrounds in Turkey who openly fight against the extremism of the Grey Wolves closely observe what happens in the strongholds of Turkish extremists in Germany. At several youth football games, flags, jerseys, and banners with symbols of the Grey Wolves have been observed. Occasionally, when the teams take the field, nationalist marching songs are sung that place the Turkish nation above all others. “Coaches and parents incited the young players and spoke of Turkism—as if it were a battle,” says someone well-acquainted with youth culture.
Occasionally, attacks occur on the fields. The victims include Kurdish, Alevi, and dark-skinned footballers. Violent language is repeatedly documented in match reports, but usually without consequences, as the Grey Wolves are well-connected in local politics. There is little knowledge of their history and structures in the football associations.
The Grey Wolves in Turkey originated in the 1960s. They refer to themselves as “Ülkücüler,” or idealists, and propagate a historical, ethnic, and moral superiority of the Turkic peoples. From the beginning, the Grey Wolves in Turkey were linked to the MHP, the Nationalist Movement Party. Thousands of Turkish emigrants brought the ideology with them to Western Europe.
The Ülkücüler maintain many enemies, whether Armenians, Kurds, Jews, or the USA. Because of this, the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution monitors the movement. The domestic intelligence service estimates there are over 12,000 supporters in Germany, most of whom are organized in clubs and associations. The largest is the “Federation of Turkish-Democratic Idealist Associations in Germany,” which, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, has nearly 7,000 members in about 200 local clubs. The “Union of Turkish-Islamic Cultural Associations in Europe” has about 2,500 members, and the “Federation of World Order in Europe” has another 1,000. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, these associations present themselves as harmless, organizing sports and cultural events, but in reality, attempt to spread their right-wing extremist worldview.
According to intelligence officials, Ülkücü supporters not affiliated with these associations are much more open about their views: some unabashedly post racist or anti-Semitic content on social media, pose with weapons there—and repeatedly threaten their opponents in the real world, especially Kurds.
The movement and its gestures have become largely normalized in Turkey. Not only have politicians of all stripes, like President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, been publicly photographed making the wolf salute, but also many seemingly apolitical influencers have shown it in recent days to support their national team. Every adult who makes the gesture knows what it signifies, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they belong to the Grey Wolves. Many Turks use the gesture to express sympathy with the movement or its ideology, complicating assessments of the movement’s structures and size.
In Germany, mosques have reportedly served as sites of politicization and radicalization. The football field comes into play for Turkish nationalists when the movement seeks to mobilize young, potentially violent men. The Grey Wolves recruit new members in football teams, martial arts clubs, and motorcycle gangs.
For example, starting in the 1970s, Turkish guest workers increasingly sought entry into football clubs in Germany, but regional associations of the German Football Association (DFB) typically rejected them. At that time, sports officials shared the widespread belief that the guest workers would eventually return to Turkey. There were few integration concepts in place.
The guest workers founded their own clubs, especially in the Ruhr area, the industrial heartland of western Germany. They often faced accusations from the majority society of being insular, to which they responded that their clubs were merely a reaction to German racism. Many families have lived in Germany for decades but continue to get their news from Turkish newspapers and TV programs.
The Grey Wolves capitalized on this political disorientation with their ideology. They exploit the experiences of exclusion faced by young footballers and offer an alternative: Turkish nationalism. One of their mottos is: “Become German, stay Turkish!”
In this context, Mesut Özil serves as a kind of advertising figure for the Grey Wolves. For several years, the 2014 World Cup champion was seen as a beacon of hope for a multicultural German society, but his decline began in 2018 after a photo with Turkish President Erdogan.
Criticism of Özil was often accompanied by racism. While many amateur footballers in Germany found him untenable, his status as a hero grew in migrant sports clubs. A footballer who gives his all for Germany yet is rejected by the majority? Many youths of Turkish descent see themselves in this narrative. The Grey Wolves tap into this frustration, amplify it with slogans, and aim to shift the focus even more toward Turkey.
When polarizing debates occur in Turkey, the threat level in the Ruhr area also rises. Minorities like the Alevis particularly feel the brunt, as ultranationalists take out their anger on people of Turkish descent who do not support Turkish nationalism. For instance, in 2016, after the failed coup attempt in Turkey, Kurdish establishments were attacked in Berlin, Hamburg, and Stuttgart.
There are football clubs in Germany that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution identifies as being within the Grey Wolves’ sphere, such as clubs that declare their allegiance to Turkish nationalism in their name, like Turanspor. Other clubs are more subtle, using ancient Turkish script or symbols of Ottoman culture, including the number 1453, the year Christian Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans.
On the social media accounts of some German-Turkish clubs, you can find connections to the right-wing extremist Turkish party MHP, videos of violence-glorifying rappers, or youth players making the “wolf salute” and leaving comments like: “The Turk will be brave, and the Jew cowardly.”
How can the influence of Turkish right-wing extremists in Germany be curbed? Some football associations are already mindful during season planning to ensure that teams close to the Grey Wolves don’t play in the same leagues as Kurdish-influenced teams. And at least in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, footballers can now report attacks by the Grey Wolves to a dedicated hotline.
Many advocate for a ban on the Grey Wolves, as in France, where the Council of Ministers ordered their dissolution in 2020. However, there are legal concerns. The Grey Wolves are not a centralized party with fixed memberships but a sprawling movement.
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