France plans to ban a Turkish ultra-nationalist group known as the Grey Wolves, the interior minister said Monday, in a move that risks further straining already tense relations with Ankara.
The dissolution was announced after a memorial center to mass killings of Armenians during World War I was defaced with graffiti including the name of the Grey Wolves at the weekend.
The move to ban the Grey Wolves -- seen as a wing of a party allied to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- will be put to the French cabinet on Wednesday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told a parliamentary committee.
"To put it mildly, we are talking about a particularly aggressive group," Darmanin said.
"It deserves to be dissolved," he added, saying the move meant that actions or meetings by the group can be punished by fines or imprisonment.
His announcement came after a memorial center outside Lyon to the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, regarded as genocide by Armenia, was defaced with pro-Turkish slogans including "Grey Wolves" and "RTE" in reference to Erdogan.
The incident in the town of Decines-Charpieu came against a background of sharp tension in France between its Armenian and Turkish communities over the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkey has strongly backed its ally Azerbaijan in the conflict over the region that is part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by Armenian separatists since a 1990s war as the Soviet Union broke up.
Four people were wounded outside Lyon last Wednesday in clashes between suspected Turkish nationalists and Armenians protesting against Azerbaijan's military offensive.
Armenians have long campaigned for the mass killings of their ancestors in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to be recognized as genocide.
In an apparent new act of vandalism, the Armenian consulate in Lyon on Monday was daubed in yellow paint with "1915" and a heart-shaped emoji followed by "RTE".
'No place in our country'
The move by Darmanin risks further stoking tensions with Ankara.
In Turkey, the Grey Wolves are closely linked to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of Devlet Bahceli which has a political alliance with Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Analysts see the MHP as critical to Erdogan's continued domination of Turkey, with the support of Bahceli a key factor behind his victory in 2018's presidential election.
The Grey Wolves are regarded as the militant wing of the MHP and caused havoc on the streets in Turkey during the 1970s and 1980s when its members frequently clashed with leftist activists.
Those affiliated to the Grey Wolves, known as Bozkurtlar in Turkish, and MHP traditionally show their loyalty with a hand gesture in which the little and index fingers raised.
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish nationalist who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, has also been linked to the movement.
"It is excellent news," said French MP Yael Braun-Pivet who chairs the laws committee where Darmanin made the announcement. "These violent groups have no place in our country," she wrote on Twitter.
