After a scandal at the European Championships in Germany
Statue with wolf salute erected for Turkey player Demiral
October 4, 2024, 7:36 p.m
The celebration with the wolf salute from the Turkish national player Demiral causes excitement during the European Football Championship. In Turkey, a mayor angry about the criticism is now dedicating a statue to the professional – including the wolf salute, which experts equate with the Hitler salute.
Turkish national player Merih Demiral’s wolf salute celebration during the European Football Championship caused a huge scandal, but a monument was dedicated to the player at home. A statue of the player wearing the national jersey and giving the wolf salute was inaugurated in the western Turkish city of Bolu, as seen in a video posted by the city’s mayor on Platform X.
Demiral gave the so-called wolf salute after a goal. UEFA then suspended the player for two games. Afterwards, at Turkey’s European Championship quarter-final against the Netherlands in Berlin, thousands of fans raised their hands with the wolf gesture in the Olympic Stadium while the Turkish national anthem was played.
The wolf salute usually expresses affiliation or sympathy with the Turkish right-wing extremist Ülkücü movement and its ideology. In Turkey, for example, it is used by the ultranationalist MHP party, which is a partner of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The initiator of the statue is Mayor Özcan himself, who is considered a nationalist and gained nationwide fame with his anti-refugee statements. He argued in favor of the statue by saying it was “a big lie” that the wolf salute was a sign of the MHP and the Gray Wolves. Rather, it is a symbol of “Turkishness”. Demiral had agreed to the action in advance, the mayor explained.
Kamal Sido from the “Society for Threatened Peoples” explained in an interview with ntv.de in July that the wolf salute “stands for violence, like the Hitler salute.” The Middle East expert said of the Gray Wolves: “The official policy of the movement is the establishment of a greater Turkish empire, from China to Vienna even. This great empire would mean expulsion and genocide of Armenians, Kurds or Greeks.” In recent decades, the Gray Wolves have repeatedly been involved in murders and attacks on non-Turkish and non-Muslim Sunni ethnic groups and minorities in Turkey and outside Turkey.