"Turks do not have any friend or ally other than other Turks. Turks! turn to your roots. Our words are to those that have Turkish ancestry and are Turks.... Those that have torn down this nation (referring to the Ottoman Empire) are Greek, Armenian and Jew traitors, and Kurdish, Bosnian and Albanians... How can you, as a Turk, tolerate these dirty minorities. Remove from within the Armenians and Kurds and all Turkish enemies."
Alparslan Turkes, Nationalist Movement Party
The Grey Wolves is the youth organization of the Turkish ultranationlist movement founded by Alparslan Turkes in 1969. The movement's ideology is the dream of creating a Great Turkish Empire of all "Turkic" peoples. The group has been used at various times by the Turkish military to further it's political, military and strategic goals. On a global scale they have been implicated in assassinations and terrorism against all of Turkey's enemies such as the Kurds, Armenians, Greeks and Russians. A member, Mehmet Ali Agca was apprehended after attempting to kill the Pope in 1981.
The boys are pretty fired up about the pending visit of the Pope Benedict to the cathedral of Hagia Sophia or Holy Wisdom, the crown jewel of Orthodox Christianity and considered one of the great architectural masterpieces of the world. It was converted to a mosque after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. In 1935, Kemal Ataturk ordered that Hagia Sophia become a museum and it has remained so until now. Today the "museum" was invaded by a large group of young Turkish fanatics shouting Allah Akbar and threatening slogans against Pope Benedict. They decided to hold a prayer service in the Church under the watchful eyes of television cameras and the "helpless" gaze of the Police.
Just another day in democratic Turkey.
For those of you that might like to send the boys a message, please go to http://www.hagiasophiablog.com/mainpage.html and sign the petition.
Technorati Tags: Grey Wolves, Turkey, Kurds, Armenians, Hagia Sophia, Orthodox Christianity, Pope Benedict, Alsparslan Turkes, Nationalist Movement Party
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"The Grey Wolves is the youth organization of the Turkish ultranationlist movement founded by Alparslan Turkes in 1969. The movement's ideology is the dream of creating a Great Turkish Empire of all "Turkic" peoples."
The quote above is reminiscent of the Pan Turanian ideology of the Young Turks who wanted to united all the Turkic speaking people stretching from Central Asia to the Bosphorus. Enver Pasha wanted to implement something similar after the First World War.
Posted by: Stavros Stavridis | 24 November 2006 at 08:49 AM
Merhaba..
Tebrik ederim harika bi calisma yapmisisniz kutlarim
Posted by: kral | 24 November 2006 at 12:39 PM
hi
I am a kurdish man.I would like to thank you for this article.It obviously shows the dirty history of turks.they think that all world are their enemies.but in truth they are the enemy of all world and humanity.
Posted by: yasar | 27 November 2006 at 06:16 PM
Yasar,
I respect the Kurds and their long struggle against all those that would deny them a homeland. They have earned the right to live free. They are surrounded by those that would destroy and devour what the Kurds have built in Northern Iraq. I hope that we Americans don't let you down again and finally recognize who our true friends are.
Posted by: Stavros | 27 November 2006 at 09:12 PM
hahah,you guyz make me smile.. yasar your name is almost turkish. üstelik türkler hakkında nası konuşuyorsun ? if you dont like turkey,then go to your motherland, oh sorry you have not a country ? i don't like kurds they'r dirty fascists against the Turks.
Posted by: Aegean_deniz | 23 April 2010 at 03:37 PM
Yes and Turks should go to their motherland also in Mongolia...:) The PanTuranists never answer the question of who is really a Turk just a Turkphone which could be anyone....The fact is that Turks are a minority even inside Turkey which is largely a Turkified country, and there are all kinds of theories about who the Kemalists really are. The articles here that deal with the Pontians and Turkification processes are very helpful in unravelling the myth of modern Turkey.
Posted by: kosta | 24 March 2012 at 05:45 AM
The 10 million+ Kurds who reside in Turkey are not Turks. They are in fact the fastest growing nation in the Middle East. One projection has it that, if current trends proceed through the next few decades, Turkey itself will, by 2050, include more Kurds than Turks.
Posted by: Stavros | 24 March 2012 at 11:46 AM
Not just Kurds but people who have been Turkified. I did some research into this a while back and thats alot of people who call themselves Turks. Look into the language and toponym laws of the early Kemalist period. I think you have an article here about a Turkish writer who explored his Pontian roots which is excellent.
Posted by: kosta | 24 March 2012 at 12:39 PM
And its amazing that what passes off as "Turkish" or Ottoman culture is actually Greek-Byzantine, Arabic and Armenian. The original Turks themselves seem to have brought nothing with them to civilization but just parasitism.
Posted by: kosta | 24 March 2012 at 12:43 PM
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/OT/view/the-miracles-of-st.-george-to-muslims
Posted by: Stavros | 24 March 2012 at 12:53 PM
Not all Turks have been Muslims I think of the Karamanliedes who were Greek Orthodox Turks. Interesting to speculate how Byzantium and the Turkic peoples would have interacted if the Turkic peoples were converted to Orthodoxy instead of Islam.
Posted by: kosta | 24 March 2012 at 01:23 PM
I always thought the "Ottoman yoke" was one of a clearly culturally inferior people using mostly manpower to overwhelm, assimilate and adopt the culture and insitutions of other civilizations. I'm still trying to figure out what was distinctly "Turkish" about it. Is it any wonder its one of the only civilisations that has left almost nothing of value in history but is rightly considered a historical dark age.
Posted by: kosta | 24 March 2012 at 01:46 PM
I think Turks might disagree with you. Although we should be rightly proud of our culture we don't necessarily have to discredit theirs. Let history be the judge. Our two cultures have lived side by side for centuries and whether we like it or not we have rubbed off on each other. For better or worse.
Having spent time in Greece and Turkey, I can honestly say I felt comfortable in both.
Posted by: Stavros | 24 March 2012 at 02:16 PM