Following Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s “Grey Wolves” gesture to the Armenian community in Uruguay, Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Francisco Bustijo Bonasso summoned Turkish Ambassador to Turkey Huseyin Muftioglu on April 25.
“Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu arrived in Uruguay this Friday to hold a series of meetings with the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry and to open a Turkish embassy in the country. During the inauguration, members of the Armenian group held a demonstration near the embassy. Going out into the street, a Turkish official made a gesture from his car, which was videotaped by the protesters.
“Let us be on the right side of memory, truth and justice.
“The human rights organization of the Armenian Council of Uruguay has stated that the gesture refers to the Turkish Gray Wolves terrorist organization,” the statement from the Armenian Council of Uruguay reads.
Uruguayan Armenians had staged a protest action on Saturday against Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s visit to Uruguay. They displayed the Armenian flag and posters about the Armenian Genocide. Leaving the Turkish embassy, Cavusoglu laughed and waved the Turkish nationalist “Grey Wolves” sign.
Turkish nationalists often use the salutation of the Grey Wolves, “a fist with the little finger and index finger raised,” inspired by a she-wolf in the Ergenekon legend, a myth associated with the country’s Turkic origins in the Central Asian steppes.
It was banned in Austria in February 2019. In Germany, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Left Party proposed banning the salute in October 2018, calling it fascist.
