Even this grey wolf symbol does not belong to you!
1970s violence and the coup of 1980
By the late 1970s the organizations had tens of thousands of members.
[34] Amberin Zaman wrote that Turkish authorities had lost control over it.
[30]Members of the Grey Wolves were involved in numerous assassinations of left-wing and liberal activists, intellectuals, labor organizers, ethnic Kurds, officials, journalists during the
political violence between 1976 and 1980.
[9][28] During this period, the organization became a "
death squad"
[56] engaged in "
street killings and gunbattles".
[18] According to authorities, 220 of its members carried out 694
[56][57]murders of left-wing and liberal activists and intellectuals.
[28] In total, some 5,000 to 6,000 people were killed with the Grey Wolves committing most of it.
[17][58]
Their most significant attack of this period was the
Maraş massacre in December 1978 when over 100
Alevis were killed.
[34][59][60][61][62] They are also "alleged to have been behind" the
Taksim Square massacre on May 1, 1977.
[34][63] The Grey Wolves became a "state-approved force" and used attacks on left-wing groups to "cause chaos and demoralization and inflame a climate in which a regime promising law and order would be welcomed by the masses."
[64] During this violent period, Grey Wolves operated with the encouragement and the protection of the Turkish Army
Special Warfare Department.
[65] The conflict between left-wing and right-wing groups eventually resulted in a military intervention in September 1980 when General
Kenan Evren led a
coup d'état.
[30] According to
Daniele Ganser, at the time of the coup, there were some 1,700 Grey Wolves organizations, with about 200,000 registered members and a million sympathizers.
[57]Following the 1980 coup the Grey Wolves and MHP were banned. Their activism was diminished.
[66] The nationalist view was that they were "used and then discarded" by higher powers.
[67]