THE WOLF PACK

The problem was this: Ali Agca was a member of a fascist organization known as the Gray Wolves. They were the youth wing of the National Action Party in Turkey, which was headed by a former army colonel named Turkes (Tour–kesh).

To say that the Gray Wolves were an extreme right-wing organization is to understate the obvious. They were unapologetic fascists. The Gray Wolves were the close kin of the Hitler Youth, but considerably more violent. Although they received some training in weapons and methods, they were essentially a group of young men who got most of their practical experience on the job. Often, their job consisted of killing.

The 1970s in Turkey were marked by deadly and steadily rising violence between the political left and the right. Nor was the violence always small scale. The streets of the cities were rife with mayhem, especially those streets that bore hard upon the universities in the major cities.

The year 1978 marked something of a watershed in urban violence. Several prominent faculty members of Turkish universities were assassinated. Any number of students were assassinated almost at random. Bombs exploded on and off campuses, killing and wounding students of all parties in the political spectrum, but especially targeting leftists.

The police usually did not intervene in these actions, and sometimes collaborated with right-wing elements—led by the Gray Wolves—whose purpose was the intimidation and murder of their enemies. Arrests were seldom made even in cases where the attackers were known. People like Mehmet Ali Agca (Ah–ja) were more or less free to practice their training on these jobs.

Agca had come to Istanbul as a student transfer from Ankara. Born and raised in Malatya Province in central Turkey, he was a bright but not brilliant young man who liked history, right wing politics, and handguns. Although born to a poor family, his bank accounts in Istanbul were usually filled to overflowing. And although he was a good student, someone else took his entrance exams before he transferred from Ankara University to Istanbul University.

It should be repeated that Agca never gravitated toward left wing individuals or organizations except to want to harm them by gunfire. Although no one has been able to confirm the source of his funding or the origination point of his orders, the results of his actions are remarkably consistent. They dovetail neatly with the goals of the National Action Party and their allies in the Turkish Army and Turkish intelligence (MIT).

At the risk of making everything too simple, we should keep that fact in mind. Colonel Turkes, when he became a member of coalition governments in the 1970s, never said that he wanted much. He simply asked for control of the intelligence departments of the Turkish state. In exchange for his political cooperation, he was pretty much given what he wanted. His army contacts, well, it would be silly to think they were allowed to lapse.

Turkes is long gone to his reward, and we can only hope that it's fitting. But his National Action Party still casts its shadow on Turkish politics. From time to time they participate in the formation of governments, though their platforms are never less than freakish.

They believe in Turkey only for Turks, despising and promising to deal harshly with minorities like Armenians and Kurds. As is typical with fascist parties, they hate much better than they love. They despise Russians, but do not like Americans either. They hate Christianity or any religion other than Islam, which they usually honor by ignoring.

And like all racists, they never give up. When Agca was finally released after decades in prison in Italy and Turkey, he was welcomed back to the bosom of his country by a procession of Mercedes-Benz sedans and undisguised cries of vindication from his fellow Gray Wolves.

These dudes howl at the moon when they get together in a pack.

Yes, it’s weird. And the weirdness will only grow in further installments of Mystery Central.