(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 21, 2018, a man wearing a Turkish officer's uniform flashes the Grey Wolves (a Turkish far-right ultranationalist organisation) sign, during a demonstration in support of neighbouring Turkey in the Syrian town of Bizaa, north of Aleppo.  France is to ban a Turkish ultra-nationalist group known as the Grey Wolves, the interior minister said on November 2, 2020, after a memorial to the mass killings of Armenians was defaced at the weekend. The dissolution of the Grey Wolves will be put to the French cabinet on Wednesday, Gerald Darmanin told a parliamentary committee. / AFP / Bakr ALKASEM
A man wearing a Turkish officer's uniform flashes the Grey Wolves sign in Syria. AFP

Turkey vows to protect Turks in France after Grey Wolves banned


Turkey has vowed to deliver a firm response to France's decision to disband the Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves group.

"We stress the need to protect the freedom of assembly and expression of Turks in France … and will respond in the firmest way possible to this decision," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

The Grey Wolves are regarded as an influential wing of a party allied to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The French Cabinet formally disbanded the local offshoot of the group after a memorial centre to the mass killing of Armenians during the First World War was defaced at the weekend with graffiti, including the name of the Grey Wolves.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that the group "incites discrimination and hatred, and is implicated in violent actions".

Weeks of tension between France and Turkey reached a peak after the beheading of a French schoolteacher who showed his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

After Samuel Paty's death, President Emmanuel Macron delivered a defence of free speech, including the right to mock religion, prompting Mr Erdogan to insult his mental health.

France responded by recalling its ambassador to Ankara for consultations.

In Turkey, the Grey Wolves are closely linked to the Nationalist Movement Party of Devlet Bahceli, which has a political alliance with Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development Party.