France - French Jews Praise Interior Minister’s Ban on Violent Turkish Neo-Fascist Group

Photo : French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Photo: Abacus Press / Reuters.

Published on November 2, 2020 in Algemeiner

In a post on Twitter, CRIF — the representative organization of French Jews — praised Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin’s move to ban the “Grey Wolves,” an ultranationalist organization with a record of assassinations and bombings that stretches back to the 1960s.

“Their violence, expressed again this weekend against the Armenian community in France, has no place in the territory of the Republic,” CRIF said — referring to attacks this week by Grey Wolves supporters on an Armenian demonstration against renewed fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as well as the vandalizing of a monument to the Armenian genocide in the city of Lyon.

#Crif - Le Crif salue la décision du Ministre de l'Intérieur @GDarmanin de dissoudre les Loups Gris, mouvement nationaliste turc.
Leur violence, exprimée encore ce weekend contre la communauté arménienne de France, n'a rien à faire sur le territoire de la République.

— CRIF (@Le_CRIF) November 2, 2020

The ban on the Grey Wolves comes amid rising tension between France and Turkey following the beheading last month of a Paris school teacher by an Islamist assailant.

Darmanin described the Grey Wolves as “particularly aggressive” in comments to French legislators.

A Grey Wolves terrorist — Mehmet Ali Agca – was famously responsible for the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1981.