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exchange for the 90 hostages. While negotiators stalled and ardent supporter of pan-Turkism, the idea that all
for time, a GSG-9 team was flown to Mogadishu. At Turkic-speaking peoples should be united under one
2:07 on the morning of October 18, while the Somali political regime. Many observers compare the MHP’s
Army provided a diversion, the GSG-9 team broke into structure, ideology, and tactics to those of Europe’s
the plane. Taken by surprise, the terrorists retreated to fascist regimes of the 1930s. The Grey Wolves were
the cockpit. In less than 10 minutes, the four terrorists composed of young Turkish men, often students or
had been killed or wounded and all 90 hostages had rural migrants to Turkey’s largest cities: Istanbul and
been freed unharmed. The success of the operation Ankara, the capital. The organization was run on
was vital in restoring public confidence in Germany’s military lines, with followers undergoing training in
security forces. the martial arts and the use of various weapons and
Following the Mogadishu raid, GSG-9 began to explosives. Members were fed and clothed by the
concentrate on counterterrorism at home, tracking MHP; the party’s willingness to provide for them
down and arresting members of the German Red Amy combined with the thorough political indoctrination
Faction. In June 1993, the unit’s reputation was some- they received often inspired a blind devotion to the
what tarnished by accusations that it had killed Red party. By the end of the 1970s, the group had tens of
Army member Wolfgang Grams, in cold blood, but thousands of members.
subsequent investigation proved that he had shot Throughout the 1970s, Türkes had held a series of
himself. Even before the investigation was complete, high governmental positions, including the post of min-
GSG-9 was able to redeem itself in the eyes of many ister of monopolies and customs. Türkes’s control of
with its August 1993 rescue of a hijacked KLM flight the customs department led to a profitable association
from Tunis to Amsterdam, in which the commandos between the MHP and Turkey’s vast array of smugglers
were able to capture the hijacker without firing a shot. and drug traffickers. Türkes’s position also allowed the
The GSG-9 remains one of the best-trained and most MHP to obtain whatever weapons it needed.
respected counterterrorism units in the world. As the decade progressed, Turkey’s leftist groups
became more politically active, and political violence
See also COUNTERTERRORISM; GERMAN RED ARMY FACTION;
worsened; the MHP, which was fanatically anti-
MUNICH OLYMPICS MASSACRE
communist, began to deploy the Grey Wolves in
earnest. They are alleged to have been behind a May
Further Reading 1977 massacre at a leftist parade that killed more than

Harclerode, Peter. Secret Soldiers: Special Forces in the 20 people and injured hundreds. In 1978, a leftist
War Against Terrorism. London: Cassell, 2000. government headed by Bulent Ecevit came to power
Reeve, Simon. One Day in September: The Full Story of the in Turkey and violence worsened. The Grey Wolves
1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli were used to attack leftist political party headquarters,
Revenge Operation, Wrath of God. New York: Arcade, and gangs of Grey Wolves were sent into the country-
2000. side to incite riots. A December 1978 attack in the
Tophoven, Rolf. GSG 9: German Response to Terrorism. southeastern town of Kahramanmaras was typical: a
Koblenz, Germany: Bernard and Graefe, 1984. bomb set off in a movie house led to several days of
rioting and gun battles in the streets between the Grey
Wolves and the leftists. Two hundred people were
GREY WOLVES killed with more than 1,000 wounded, and more than
900 buildings destroyed. By the end of the decade, the
country was near anarchy.
The Grey Wolves were the youth wing of the In September 1980, the military overthrew
Milliyetci Hareket Partisi (MHP), a neo-fascist politi- Turkey’s government in a bloodless coup. Türkes and
cal party in Turkey. Fighting between the Grey Wolves several dozen high-level MHP members were
and leftists during the late 1970s resulted in more than arrested, and the Grey Wolves reined in. Although
5,000 deaths. many MHP members, including Türkes, were con-
The Milliyetci Hareket Partisi (Nationalist Action victed and given stiff sentences, most served no time
Party or Nationalist Movement Party) was founded in prison, having been released at the conclusion of
in 1969 by Alpasan Türkes, a Turkish military officer the trial. Türkes resumed his political career.