Alparslan Turkes (25 November 1917-4 April 1997) was leader of the Nationalist Movement Party from 8 February 1969 to 5 April 1997, preceding Devlet Bahceli. He was one of the most infamous Turkish nationalist leaders, and, while he was a neo-fascist, he was respected by nationalists on both sides of the political spectrum and nicknamed Basbug ("leader").
Biography[]
Alparslan Turkes was born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1917, the son of Turkish parents. In 1932, the family moved to Istanbul, and Turkes joined the Turkish Army in 1938 and began a military career. In 1945, he was court-martialled for fascist and racist activities, but the charges were dismissed in 1947. In 1960, he served as spokesman of the coup which toppled Adnan Menderes' government, but he was expelled by an internal coup within the military junta. A member of the Republican Villagers Nation Party for years, he founded the Nationalist Movement Party in 1969, also becoming the leader of their neo-fascist paramilitary wing, the Grey Wolves. He served as Deputy Prime Minister during the right-wing governments of 1975-1977 and 1977-1978, and he supported nationalism, idealism, moralism, scientism, societalism, ruralism, libertism, personalism, progressivism, populism, industrialism, technologism, and anti-communism, founding a counter-guerrilla movement to fight against communist unrest. He was a key figure in reviving Pan-Turkism from the 1940s onwards, and he became an icon of Turkish nationalism, being nicknamed Basbug ("leader") by his followers. He died in Ankara in 1997 at the age of 79.