An alleged ultranationalist gesture by Turkish defender Merih Demiral as he celebrated scoring in the win against Austria at Euro 2024 has prompted calls on the German government to ban Turkish ultranationalist group the Grey Wolves, to which the gesture is linked.
The 26-year-old defender mimicked the shape of a wolf’s head with his fingers after his second goal in Turkey’s 2-1 win over Austria in the last-16 of Euro 2024.
Demiral’s gesture prompted UEFA to launch a probe for “inappropriate behavior” and sparked condemnation from German leaders, but Ankara immediately branded Berlin’s reaction as “xenophobia.”
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Reuters reported on Wednesday that the defender’s gesture also triggered calls on the German government to ban the Grey Wolves, seen as the paramilitary wing of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
The German Israeli Society, which described the nationalist organization as a threat to Jews as well as Armenians, Greeks and Kurds, called on German authorities to ban the group.
“The ideological superiority of these fascist nationalists jeopardizes public safety,” its president, Volker Beck, also a lawmaker for the opposition Greens, said in a statement.
The ideology of the Grey Wolves is mainly based on Turkish nationalism. Therefore, Kurds, Armenians and other minorities in Turkey have occasionally been their targets.
The group is outlawed in France, and its symbol is banned in Austria. The Grey Wolves are also under surveillance in Germany, according to German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
Cem Özdemir, who is of Turkish descent and currently serves as Germany’s agriculture minister, also said on X that Demiral’s message is “extreme right-wing” and stands for “terror and fascism.”
“Discussing this is exhausting. UEFA must take measures,” Özdemir said, adding that Germany’s tolerance of the Grey Wolves must also end outside the stadium.
Richtig, nichts am #Wolfsgruß ist versteckt. Seine Botschaft ist rechtsextrem, steht für Terror, Faschismus. Darüber zu diskutieren, ist ermüdend. @UEFA muss Konsequenzen ziehen.https://t.co/LsJo3MSvC1
— Cem Özdemir (@cem_oezdemir) July 3, 2024
According to a report by Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish service on Wednesday, Left Party politician Katina Schubert also called on the federal government to ban the Grey Wolves, referring to them as a “fascist terrorist organization.”
DW Turkish also reported that Maximilian Kall, press spokesperson for the federal interior minister, was asked why the German government hasn’t banned the Grey Wolves and the wolf salute.
Kall replied that the federal government is waiting for the conclusion of the UEFA investigation. He added that German security authorities are monitoring Turkish right-wing extremists and are not commenting on potential measures they might take against them for security reasons.
Ahead of the quarter-final match between the Netherlands and Turkey at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, German authorities are concerned that the ongoing political polarization over the Grey Wolves ideology in Turkey could spread to Germany, posing a potential threat to public safety.
Security authorities are stepping up measures to prevent tensions before and after the match between groups with differing political views.
An analysis titled “Türkischer Rechtsextremismus in Deutschland” (Turkish right-wing extremism in Germany), which was published on the website of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country’s domestic security agency, in January 2023, said the Grey Wolves consider violence a “means to an end,” endangering internal security in Germany.
There are 11,000 people in Germany who are affiliated with the organization and its ideology, according to the report, and it’s common for them to have a strong affinity for weapons and like pictures of themselves in martial poses, which they spread on the internet.
The German government has faced an intensified public campaign in favor of banning the Grey Wolves since France officially banned the group in 2020.
Earlier last year the European Parliament called on the European Union and its member states to examine the possibility of adding the Grey Wolves to the EU terrorist list.
In its 2019-2020 report prepared by Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor, the EP voiced concerns about the group, saying it was expanding to worrying levels not only in Turkey but also in EU countries.