The Counter-Guerrilla programme was the Turkish branch of the NATO and CIA-sponsored Operation Gladio. Turkey joined NATO in 1952 and, guarding one-third of NATO's borders with Warsaw Pact countries, became a bulwark against communism. As early as 1949, the Pentagon identified Turkey as “extremely favourable territory for the establishment of both guerrilla units and Secret Army Reserves.” Such was the Grey Wolves' prominence among this branch of the Turkish deep state that they could barely be distinguished from the Turkish intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT).
Operating under the guise of the “Special Warfare Department”, the goal of the operation was to establish a stay-behind network in the event of a Soviet invasion and, meanwhile, to suppress the Turkish left. High-profile Grey Wolves like Alparslan Türkeş and Alaattin Çakıcı. The 1959 military accord between the Turkish and US governments suggested the Counter-Guerillas could operate ‘also in the case of an internal rebellion against the regime’.
With their protection assured by the Counter-Guerrilla programme, members of the Gray Wolves made up the rank and file of the “stay-behind” network which carried out the terror of the 1970s, assassinating leftists, journalists, and dissidents.
