Far-right Turkish nationalists have more than 12,000 supporters in Germany, two of whom were sacked from the armed forces because of their links to the militant Grey Wolves movement, officials have revealed.
German Interior Ministry documents handed to MPs also reveal “isolated cases” in which Turkish extremists have forged connections to the criminal underworld.
Officials have stopped short of announcing a ban on the Grey Wolves after crackdowns in France and Austria. They said Turkish nationalists had toned down their public pronouncements in Germany.
The details were passed to left-wing MPs alarmed by the movement’s presence in Germany, which is home to a large Turkish diaspora.
The Grey Wolves group is associated with Turkey’s Nationalist Action Party, an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party. It rose to prominence during street battles and political violence in the 1970s.
Also known as the Ulkucu movement, the ideology of its supporters “is not confined to the modern territory of Turkey but relates to the right-wing extremist utopia” of a fictional larger state, the German ministry wrote.
Known as Turan in the ideology of Turkish ultra-nationalists, such a state would “encompass the areas inhabited by all the population groups that can be classified as Turkic”.
The number of Turkish nationalists in Germany suspected to be right-wing extremists was estimated at 12,100 last year, up by 10 per cent on a year earlier. German intelligence agencies routinely collect data on membership of suspected radical groups.
In the past five years, “two people were identified as supporters or sympathisers of the Grey Wolves” in the German armed forces and were dismissed, according to the Interior Ministry, which did not give further details.
Some nationalists are believed to have visited Turkish mosques in Germany in the run-up to presidential elections in Turkey this year, it said.
Turkish expats in Germany strongly backed Mr Erdogan in both rounds of voting in May’s election, in which campaigns laid on buses to take people to polling booths in Berlin.
However, nationalists generally try to appear law-abiding and have “noticeably moderated their outward presentation in recent years” amid speculation over a possible ban, MPs were told.
Austria in 2018 outlawed the Grey Wolves’ symbols and salute, a move condemned by the Turkish government. France banned the movement outright after a memorial to the Armenian genocide was defaced with nationalist graffiti near Lyon.
Germany’s parliament debated a possible ban in 2020 but any decision would ultimately be up to the Interior Ministry, which shut down a neo-Nazi group called Hammerskins on Tuesday.
It refused to reveal in the latest document whether a ban was under consideration, saying any public speculation would create “the danger that potentially affected people would adjust their behaviour accordingly”.
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Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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The Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize
This year’s winners of the US$4 million Sheikh Zayed Future Energy Prize will be recognised and rewarded in Abu Dhabi on January 15 as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainable Week, which runs in the capital from January 13 to 20.
From solutions to life-changing technologies, the aim is to discover innovative breakthroughs to create a new and sustainable energy future.
