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Last Wednesday, the ultranationalist organization Gray Wolves was banned in France.
The decision was made at a government meeting and is justified by the fact that they have long been involved in a series of violent attacks against Kurds and Armenians on French soil.
According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, gray wolves are “extremely aggressive”.
On Saturday, a demonstration was organized in Malmö, in support of Azerbaijan, after its violent conflicts with Armenia.
According to the police, it is an association called United Azerbaijan that requested and received permission to demonstrate.
But on Facebook, the Gray Wolves posted an invitation to the rally through their account, urging their followers to come and support their “blood brothers in Azerbaijan.”
Images from the demonstration show how two of the protesters make the gray wolf sign. Its symbol is also visible on one of the flags.
No reports of riots
According to the Swedish-Kurdish author and public debater Kurdo Baksi, it is unusual for gray wolves to show up and demonstrate, especially in Malmö.
– I’ve checked and I don’t know if it has happened before. Is unusual. This is an organization that in the 80’s hid in laundries because they didn’t want to introduce themselves.
– They want to test their limits. It is also a direct order from Erdogan (President of Turkey, editor’s note) to appear. Now they are using the conflict in Azerbaijan and the teacher’s beheading in France to justify Erdogan’s criticism of Europe, he says.
The Gray Wolves are often seen as a military branch of the Turkish nationalist MHP party, which supports the president’s AK Party.
The demonstration in Malmö went smoothly and the police have no reports of disturbances surrounding the incident.
– There are no reports of riots during a demonstration this weekend, says police spokesman Nils Norling.
A known anti-racist participated
The demonstration has attracted attention and reactions on social media.
The rally was attended by Siavosh Derakhti, a social entrepreneur who was previously praised for his efforts against anti-Semitism. He has received the Raoul Wallenberg Prize and the ELSA Prize after founding “Young Muslims Against Anti-Semitism.”
Siavosh Derakhti spoke in the summer of 2015 and was one of the Swedes who met then-President Barack Obama during his visit to Sweden in 2013.
He says he received hatred and threats after the information spread that the Gray Wolves were at the same rally.
– I myself am Swedish-Azerbaijani and I was there to show my link with the country and the relationship with the family and relatives there to support my country, he says.
“Impossible to control”
When asked by Kvällsposten why he was at a demonstration spread by the Gray Wolves, he replies that he has also heard that there is information that the Gray Wolves have been on the scene.
– I can’t check people’s backgrounds. I don’t come from the right or the left, but from Malmö. I was not the organizer, I wanted to show solidarity.
He also says that it was not the Gray Wolves who organized the demonstration.
– I don’t even know who the Gray Wolves are, they have come on their own initiative. That does not mean that you defend your political views.
Javidan Humbatov, a contact person for the association that organized the demonstration, says he did not see anything to indicate that the Gray Wolves were at the demonstration. According to him, they have no connection with the Turkish far-right organization.
– We as an association have not commercialized the demonstration so much, we have spoken with friends and acquaintances. People show up anyway, it’s almost impossible to control.
