title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The Grey Wolves adhere to an extreme form of Turkish nationalism. It has been characterized as an ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist paramilitary organization by political scholars, the mainstream media, and left-wing sources. R. W. Apple Jr., writing in "The New York Times" in 1981, described MHP and its satellite groups as a "xenophobic, fanatically nationalist, neofascist network steeped in violence." The organization's ideology emphasizes the early history of the Turkic peoples in Central Asia and blends it with Islamic culture and beliefs; their synthesis of Turkish identity, political ideology, and Islamic beliefs is referred to as "Turkish Islamonationalism", and is widely prevalent in their rhetoric and activities. One of their mottos is "Your doctor will be a Turk and your medicine will be Islam." Other sources have described it as secular.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Their ideology is based on a "superiority" of the Turkish "race" and the Turkish nation. According to Peters, they strive for an "ideal" Turkish nation, which they define as "Sunni-Islamic and mono-ethnic: only inhabited by 'true' Turks." A Turk is defined as someone who lives in the Turkish territory, feels Turkish and calls themselves Turkish. In their ideology and activities, they are hostile to virtually all non-Turkish or non-Sunni elements within Turkey, including Kurds, Alevis, Armenians, Greeks, Christians, and Jews. They embrace anti-Semitic conspiracy theories such as those put forward by "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and have distributed the Turkish translation of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf".


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The Grey Wolves are Pan-Turkist and seek to unite the Turkic peoples in one state stretching from the Balkans to Central Asia. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Grey Wolves called for "a revived Turkish empire embracing newly independent Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union." They have proposed "a pan-Turkish extension of the Turkish nation-state." Due to their pan-Turkic agenda they are hostile towards China, Iran, and Russia.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: According to sociologist , the Grey Wolves—"the militant youth wing of the Turkish ethnic nationalists that are dissatisfied with the inertia of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) camp"—are supported by 3.6% of the Turkish electorate as of 2014. A 2021 poll by Kadir Has University found that a similar percentage, 3.2% of respondents identify as "Ülkücü", or supporters of the Grey Wolves.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: According to analyst Ankarali Jan, the Grey Wolves have a largely unofficial presence in Turkey's major universities, but their "real power is on the streets, among disaffected poor people in predominantly Turkish Sunni neighbourhoods." Norm Dixon wrote in the "Green Left Weekly" in 1999 that the MHP and Grey Wolves "retain strong support within the military." In 2018, Tom Stevenson described it as a "street movement."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In the late 1970s, former military prosecutor and Turkish Supreme Court Justice Emin Değer documented collaboration between the Grey Wolves, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Counter-Guerrilla, the Turkish stay-behind anti-communist organization organised under NATO's Operation Gladio, a plan for guerrilla warfare in case of a communist takeover. Martin Lee writes that the Counter-Guerrilla supplied weapons to the Grey Wolves, while according to Tim Jacoby, the CIA transferred guns and explosives to Grey Wolves units through an agent in the 1970s.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: During the 1996 Susurluk scandal, the Grey Wolves were accused of being members of the Counter-Guerrilla. Abdullah Çatlı, second-in-command of the Grey Wolves leadership, was killed during the Susurluk car crash, which sparked the scandal. The April 1997 report of the Turkish National Assembly's investigative committee "offered considerable evidence of close ties between state authorities and criminal gangs, including the use of the Grey Wolves to carry out illegal activities."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In the 2008 the Ergenekon trials, a court document revealed that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) armed and funded Grey Wolves members to carry out political murders. They mostly targeted members of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), which attacked Turkish embassies abroad in retaliation for the Turkish state's continued denial of the Armenian genocide. The Turkish intelligence services also made use of the Grey Wolves in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, by offering them amnesty for their crimes in exchange.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In 2018, the AK Party formed an alliance with the MHP which succeeded in re-electing President Erdoğan. Concerns around the close connections between the Turkish government and the Grey Wolves caused the EU Foreign Affairs Committee to recommend that the Grey Wolves be banned in the EU.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: According to Ruben Safrastyan, because the Grey Wolves are subtle and often formally operate as cultural and sports organizations, information about them is scarce.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The Grey Wolves organization was formed by Colonel Alparslan Türkeş in the late 1960s as the paramilitary wing of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). In 1968, over a hundred camps for ideological and paramilitary training were founded by Türkeş across Turkey. Canefe and Bora describe it as a grassroots fascist network, which had an active role in the economy, education, and neighborhoods. Nasuh Uslu characterized it as a well-disciplined paramilitary organization, while Joshua D. Hendrick compared its organization to the Nazi "Schutzstaffel" (SS). Young male students and economic migrants from rural areas who have settled in Istanbul and Ankara made up the majority of its members. In 1973 Israeli orientalist Jacob M. Landau wrote that the importance of the Grey Wolves "is attested to by the fact that Türkeş himself assumed responsibility for the formation of these youth groups and assigned the supervision of their training to two of his close associates".


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: By the late 1970s the organizations had tens of thousands of members, and according to Amberin Zaman, the Turkish authorities had lost control over it. During the political violence between 1976 and 1980, members of the Grey Wolves were involved in numerous assassinations of left-wing and liberal activists, intellectuals, labor organizers, Kurds, officials, and journalists. The organization became a death squad engaged in "street killings and gunbattles". According to authorities, 220 of its members carried out 694 murders of left-wing and liberal activists and intellectuals. In total, some 5,000 to 6,000 people were killed in the violence, with the Grey Wolves responsible for most of the killings.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Their most significant attack of this period was the Maraş massacre in December 1978, when over 100 Alevis were killed. They are also accused of being behind the Taksim Square massacre on May 1, 1977. The Grey Wolves became a "state-approved force" and used attacks on left-wing groups to "cause chaos and demoralization and inflame a climate in which a regime promising law and order would be welcomed by the masses."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: During this violent period, Grey Wolves operated with the encouragement and the protection of the Turkish Army's Special Warfare Department.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The conflict between left-wing and right-wing groups eventually resulted in a military intervention in September 1980 when General Kenan Evren led a coup d'état. According to Daniele Ganser, at the time of the coup, there were some 1,700 Grey Wolves branches, with about 200,000 registered members and a million sympathizers. Following the 1980 coup, the Grey Wolves and MHP were banned and their activity was diminished. Turkish nationalists and others assert that the Grey Wolves were "used and then discarded" by the deep state in Turkey.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: After the 1980 coup, the Grey Wolves reorganized. They began to direct their efforts against Kurds in Turkey, as well as lobbying for aggressive denial of the Armenian genocide and support of the Turkish occupation of Cyprus.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In the 1990s, the Grey Wolves turned their focus on the Kurds and participated in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict in Turkish Kurdistan. In 1999, "Hürriyet Daily News" described the organization as "the staunchest opponent to the Kurdish cause in Turkey."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In May 1998, the Grey Wolves were involved in two murders. On May 3, a group of Grey Wolves attacked two students in Bolu who were passing by the organization's building. Kenan Mak, one of the students, was killed. On May 5, a worker named Bilal Vural was killed in Istanbul's Şişli district, allegedly by the Grey Wolves. His family claimed that he was "brought several times to the Ülkü Ocakları building where ultranationalists forced him to become a member." They said that he was killed because he was a member of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP). As a result of these murders, Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Sinan Yerlikaya and the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) requested that the Grey Wolves be banned by the authorities.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: During the 1999 general election, the Grey Wolves attacked members of the HADEP, allegedly with impunity.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In August 2002, the Grey Wolves burnt Masoud Barzani's effigy in a protest in Ankara after he claimed the partly Turkmen-inhabited Iraqi governorates of Kirkuk and Mosul as part of Iraqi Kurdistan.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On November 9, 2010, Hasan Şimşek, a Grey Wolves member and a student, was killed at the Kütahya Dumlupınar University during an apparent fight between Kurdish nationalist and Turkish nationalist student groups. At his funeral, MHP leader Bahçeli stated that "We expect every kind of measure to be taken to prevent the expansion of the PKK mob, who have a tendency to grow in the universities." Violence between Turkish and Kurdish students also broke out in Marmara University in Istanbul on November 12.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In September 2011, the Ankara Police Department raided 40 locations across Ankara belonging to the Grey Wolves. They took 36 people into custody and seized numerous guns and knives. According to police, the Grey Wolves were planning an attack on the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (BDP).


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In October 2013, the Grey Wolves demonstrated across Turkey against the Kurdish–Turkish peace process.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In October 2014, the Grey Wolves were involved in deadly clashes during the 2014 Kurdish riots in Turkey against the government's perceived collaboration with ISIL during the Siege of Kobanî. A group of Grey Wolves in Sancaktepe, Istanbul, attempted to lynch a young man.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On February 20, 2015, Fırat Yılmaz Çakıroğlu, leader of the Grey Wolves organisation in Ege University, was stabbed to death by left-wing and according to some reports, Kurdish nationalist students.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On September 7–8, 2015, Turkish nationalists, including Grey Wolves members, attacked 128 offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) across Turkey in an apparent retaliation for anti-government attacks by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Some have alleged that some of the attacks were carried out by AKP members "masquerading as Grey Wolves" or that the Grey Wolves cooperated with AKP members in attacks on HDP offices and left-wingers suspected of sympathy for the Kurds.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On June 18, 1988 Kartal Demirağ, a senior member of the Grey Wolves, attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Turgut Özal's at the Motherland Party congress. Özal linked it to his visit to Greece three days earlier, saying that the attempt was carried out "by a group opposed to his efforts to improve relations with Greece."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On September 6, 2005, a group of nationalists, led by Grey Wolves leader Levent Temiz, stormed into an Istanbul exhibition commemorating the anti-Greek pogrom of 1955. They threw eggs and tore down photos. The Grey Wolves issued a statement denying involvement.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In the 2000s the Grey Wolves routinely demonstrated outside the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Fener (Phanar), Istanbul and burn the Patriarch in effigy. In October 2005 they staged a rally and proceeding to the gate they laid a black wreath, chanting "Patriarch Leave" and "Patriarchate to Greece", inaugurating the campaign for the collection of signatures to oust the Ecumenical Patriarchate from Istanbul. As of 2006 the Grey Wolves claimed to have collected more than 5 million signatures for the withdrawal of the Patriarch and called on the Turkish government to have the patriarch deported to Greece.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In December 2017 Grey Wolves members, among them the BBP-affiliated Alperen Ocakları, invaded the Hagia Sophia and prayed there in protest against the United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In January 2004 the Grey Wolves prevented the screening of "Ararat", a film about the Armenian genocide, in Turkey.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On April 24, 2011, the murder of Sevag Balıkçı, a soldier of Armenian descent in the Turkish Army, was committed by Kıvanç Ağaoglu, who was a sympathizer of Abdullah Çatlı, the late Grey Wolves leader. According to Ruben Melkonyan, an Armenian expert in Turkish studies, Ağaoglu was a member of the Grey Wolves.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On April 24, 2012, the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, nationalist groups including the Grey Wolves protested against the commemoration of the genocide in Istanbul's Taksim Square.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In June 2015, during the visit of the Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan to the medieval Armenian city of Ani in Kars Province, the local Grey Wolves leader suggested that his followers should "go on an Armenian hunt."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: According to Zürcher and Linden, when Sunni radicals attacked Alevis in Istanbul in March 1995, the police in the Gazi quarter were "heavily infiltrated by Grey Wolves" and it was not until the police were replaced by military units that peace was restored.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In December 1996, the Grey Wolves attacked left-wing students and teachers at Istanbul University, with the alleged approval of the police.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In late November 2006 the Grey Wolves staged protests against Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey. On November 22, tens of protesters symbolically occupied Haghia Sophia in Istanbul to perform Muslim prayers. They chanted slogans against the Pope, such as "Don't make a mistake Pope, don't try our patience". Reuters reported that the event was organized by "Alperen Ocakları", considered an offshoot of the Grey Wolves. Police arrested around 40 protesters for violating the ban on prayers in the former mosque, which had been a museum since the 1930s.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In July 2014 around a thousand people demonstrated in Kahramanmaraş against the presence of Syrian refugees who fled the Syrian Civil War. Many protesters made the sign of the Grey Wolves, blocked roads in the city and removed Arabic-language signs from stores. AKP lawyer Mahir Ünal commented: "This doesn't make them idealists [i.e. members of the Grey Wolves] but it is certain some people's attempt to show it like something the idealists did."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In July 2015 the Grey Wolves staged protests across Turkey, burnt flags of the People's Republic of China, attacked Chinese restaurants and "tourists who were mistaken for being Chinese" in response to the Chinese government's ban on Muslim Turkic Uyghurs fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Korean tourists were attacked by Grey Wolves. An Uighur worked at the Turkish run Chinese restaurant which was assaulted. Members of the Grey Wolves displayed a banner in multiple locations that read, "We crave Chinese blood." Grey Wolves members attacked the Thai consulate in Istanbul in apparent retaliation for the deportation of hundreds of Uyghurs by Thailand. MHP chairman Devlet Bahçeli stated that "Our nationalist youth is sensitive to injustices in China", and that the attacks by MHP-affiliated youth on South Korean tourists was "understandable", adding "What feature differentiates a Korean from a Chinese? They see that they both have slanted eyes. How can they tell the difference?"


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In November 2015, the Grey Wolves protested Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War near Istanbul's Russian consulate, Ankara, and Adana, accusing Russia of slaughtering Syrian Turkmens.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: During the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–94), Grey Wolves members fought on the Azerbaijani side against Armenians, but many reportedly returned to Turkey in late 1992. Around 200 members of the Grey Wolves were still in the conflict zone in September 1994 to train Azerbaijani units.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In 1993, Azerbaijani Interior Minister Isgandar Hamidov established the National Democratic Party, which was known as Boz Qurd ("Grey Wolves"). According to Russian political scientist Stanislav Cherniavsky, the Azerbaijani Grey Wolves grew out of the nationalist Popular Front in 1992 and "considered itself a branch of the Turkish Grey Wolves." It was registered by the Justice Ministry in 1994. In interviews in 1992–93, Hamidov said there was no organisational link with the Turkish organization, stating that the "Grey Wolves of Azerbaijan are not subordinate to the Turkish group".


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In March 1995, a coup d'état attempt against President Heydar Aliyev was staged in Baku by paramilitary police chief Rovshan Javadov, Turkish far-right organizations (including the Grey Wolves), and the Azerbaijani opposition. According to Thomas de Waal, the "shadowy backers of this uprising were never identified but appear to have included rogue elements of the Turkish security establishment and members of the 'Gray Wolves' Bozkurt movement." After the coup attempt, Hamidov was jailed, while the Azerbaijani Supreme Court formally abolished the National Democratic Party due to its links to the Turkish Grey Wolves, which it considered to be a terrorist organization. In 2004, Hamidov was freed in an amnesty granted by President Ilham Aliyev. In 2008, Hamidov retired from politics and as president of the party, which had been inactive since. After 2007, the Grey Wolves reportedly used to not operate in Azerbaijan for some time. In the blockades of the Lachin corridor of December 2022 the presence of Grey Wolves was made apparent by their repeated salutations.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The Grey Wolves "set up training camps in Central Asia for youths from Turkic language groups" following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Failing to find support in post-Soviet Central Asian republics, they targeted the Uyghurs, concentrated in the Chinese province of Xinjiang and began actively supporting the East Turkestan independence movement. In this scope, the Grey Wolves' European affiliates attacked Chinese tourists in the Netherlands. The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies suggested in 2012 they are "highly limited in their reach and support base". In March 2020, several Chinese state-run outlets published an article, which claimed that the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and "its offshoots have forged ties with the Grey Wolves" and that WUC founder Erkin Alptekin met Türkeş on numerous occasions.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 the Grey Wolves "continued to play a role in radicalizing the dispute with Greek Cypriots by actively engaging in violence on the island." They actively supported Rauf Denktaş, the President of the unrecognized Northern Cyprus between 1983 and 2005, and were involved, according to Harry Anastasiou, in state-sponsored terror of citizens. In July 1996, Kutlu Adali, a Turkish Cypriot journalist who had criticized Denktaş and his policies, was killed by the Grey Wolves, according to some sources.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In August 1996, the Grey Wolves were involved in an attack on a protest of Greek Cypriots against the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus. Tassos Isaac, a Cypriot protester, was beaten to death by the Grey Wolves in the United Nations Buffer Zone.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In July 1997 the Grey Wolves clashed in Northern Cyprus with Kurdish university students who protested against Turkey's invasion of northern Iraq in search of the PKK.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On October 17, 2003, Murat Kanatlı, Turkish Cypriot journalist and editor of the opposition newspaper "Yeniçağ", was "attacked by a group of 20-30 persons belonging to the Grey Wolves" according to the International Press Institute (IPI). Kanatlı had covered the Grey Wolves' demonstration against the "intervention" of the European Union and the United States in elections in Northern Cyprus.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: During the 2004 referendum on the Annan Plan, the Grey Wolves campaigned for a 'no' vote". During the pre-voting period at least 50 Grey Wolves activists arrived in Northern Cyprus and caused riots against pro-ratification supporters. They were suspected of assaulting motorcyclists carrying 'vote yes' banners.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In October 2013 that the Grey Wolves opened a new headquarters in North Nicosia's Köşklüçiftlik quarter. During the opening ceremony Adem Yurdagül, the chairman of the Grey Wolves in Cyprus delivered a speech, while slogans like "Nicosia plain is home of Grey Wolves", "Cyprus is Turkish and will remain Turkish", "We are soldiers of [Alparslan] Türkeş", "The Grey Wolves Movement cannot be prevented" were chanted.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In November 2013 a fight broke out between members of the Grey Wolves and Kurdish students at the Near East University in North Nicosia resulting in arrest of 23 persons. According to the newspaper "Havadis", "the cause of the fight was allegations by the Grey wolves' organization that some Kurdish students broke the windows of the Grey wolves organization’s building. Around 500 students went out on the streets holding clubs and rocks and the police asked for reinforcement in order to put them under control."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In November and December 2015, Federation Council member Andrey Klishas and two Communist Party members of the State Duma proposed outlawing the Grey Wolves in Russia. In August 2020, the Russian International Affairs Council, a government think tank, classified the Grey Wolves as an extremist organization.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Members of the Grey Wolves fought on the Chechen separatist side during the First Chechen War (1994–96) and the Second Chechen War (1999–2000). CNN reported in 2000 that the Grey Wolves with most pro-Chechen stance were those affiliated with the Islamist Great Union Party (BBP), which had split from MHP in 1993. The article suggested that they "run the mosques and commercial activities in some parts of Istanbul. It is in these mosques, in the suburbs of the city, that offerings are collected after daily prayers for the Chechen refugees. It is money that probably also goes to soldiers on the front lines." According to Svante Cornell it is "widely believed that the Grey Wolves organised arms shipments to Chechnya, probably with at least the partial knowledge of the Turkish authorities." Russian media has alleged that the Turkish government knew and possibly supported, or at least did not prevent, the activities of the Grey Wolves in Chechnya. Georgian Minister of State Security Valery Khaburdania stated in 2002 that the Grey Wolves were the "conduit of assistance" to the Chechen militants.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Azerbaijani Grey Wolves also participated in the fight against Russia. In January 1995 "Kommersant" cited the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) in stating that the Azerbaijani Grey Wolves sent 80 fighters to Chechnya. Another 270 fighters went to Chechnya in December of that year.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: According to a December 2015 report by the independent Russian online newspaper "", Crimean Tatar nationalists have apparently began cooperating with the Grey Wolves.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Activists of the MHP and Idealist Hearths have fought in the Syrian civil war, in support of the Syrian Turkmen, whom they consider kinsmen. The MHP and Grey Wolves have provided the Syrian Turkmen Assembly with relief aid and fighters. Syrian Turkmen Assembly president Abdurrahman Mustafa stated in 2016 that "Turkish NGOs, just as the Grey Wolves, give us humanitarian aid." According to "Egypt Today" the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey (MİT) "is believed to be recruiting retired military personnel to provide support for armed groups operating in Syria, through the Grey Wolves Brigades."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Some Syrian rebel groups have ties to Grey Wolves. One is the Muntasir Billah Brigade. Another is the Turkmen Abdulhamid Han Brigade.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On 24 November 2015, the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber aircraft near the Syria–Turkey border. The pilot was shot in mid-air parachuting toward land by Syrian Turkmen rebels under Syrian Turkmen Brigades. The Turkmen rebel group operated under the command of Alparslan Çelik, a Turkish national and a Grey Wolves member from Elazığ.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: "Youm7", an Egyptian news site picked up a document allegedly issued by the Army of Conquest ("Jaish al-Fatah"), which claimed that it conspired with the Turkistan Islamic Party and the Grey Wolves in the December 2016 assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey. Russian-state run news TASS agency cited this in a news report.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The 2015 Bangkok bombing is suspected to have been carried out by the Grey Wolves due to Thailand's deportation of Uyghur terrorist suspects back to China instead of allowing them to travel to Turkey for asylum. A man with fake Turkish passports using the name Adem Karadag was arrested by the Thai police in connection to the bombing and bomb making materials found in his apartment.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In Austria, the Grey Wolves salute as well as its symbols were legally banned starting from March 1, 2019. It is punishable by fines up to €4,000. Turkey's Foreign Ministry condemned the ban. "[T]he “bozkurt” (“Grey Wolves”) sign, which is a symbol of a legal political party in Turkey and the “rabia” sign that is widely used by Muslims in many countries as well as in Turkey. We do not accept this and we strongly condemn it," read the Foreign Ministry statement. Turkey also called on Austria to "correct this grave mistake," because it "deeply offends Turkey, the Turkish community in Austria and Muslims." In early March 2019, Grey Wolves sympathizers started a campaign on Twitter by sending Chancellor Sebastian Kurz hundreds of photos of people showing the salute. Kurz defended the ban declaring people and organizations that do not accept democratic values, or fight against those values, have no place in Austria.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In January 2020 four Turkish bus drivers were fired in Vienna for making the Grey Wolves sign. On June 26, 2020, Turkish nationalist groups, identified by journalist Jake Hanrahan as Grey Wolves members, attacked Kurdish rallies in Vienna protesting the Turkish operation in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey criticized the handling of the violence by the Austrian police and claimed that it was organized by PKK sympathizers.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The "Belçika Türk Federasyonu" (BTF) is considered to be "affiliated with or sympathetic" to the Grey Wolves. According to one study, its aim is "to foster loyalty among young people of Turkish origin to their ancestral culture, religion and history and to keep alive the Turkish identity in Europe. BTF claims to oppose not the integration of Belgian-Turks into their host society but rather their assimilation by it." Its activities mostly focus on "issues relevant to Turkish national sensitivities". For instance, it has demonstrated against the erection of an Armenian Genocide memorial in Brussels. During the municipal elections of 2006 two member of the BTF came to the attention of the media: Fuat Korkmazer on the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V) list in Ghent and Murat Denizli on the Francophone Socialist Party (PS) list in Schaerbeek, a commune in the Brussels Region. Korkmazer got a very low number of votes, while Denizli was elected but had to resign because it was discovered he had a false address and lived in another commune. In 2019, sp.a candidate Mustafa Ayutar was linked to the organization. In 2019, Belgian-Kurdish New Flemish Alliance politician Zuhal Demir reported that posters advertising her candidacy in Maasmechelen had been vandalized with swastikas and the symbol of the Grey Wolves.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In May 1984, Grey Wolves leader Abdullah Çatlı carried out a bombing of an Armenian Genocide memorial in Alfortville, a Paris suburb.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: According to Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure members of the Grey Wolves partook in a January 21, 2012 demonstration in Paris against the adoption of the bill criminalizing the Armenian genocide denial in France.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In November 2020, France banned the French branch of the Grey Wolves organisation after defacement of an Armenian Genocide Memorial, organizing combat training camps in the Ardèche region in 2019, inciting violence against Kurds and Armenians and orchestrating marches targeting Armenians near Lyon. Turkey's Foreign Ministry criticized the ban and said: "we will reciprocate to this decision in the strongest way." In addition, accused the French government of tolerating associations affiliated with the PKK and the FETÖ.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: As a far-right extremist group, the Grey Wolves are monitored by the German authorities. The group brings conflict from their native Turkey into Germany with harassment against Kurds and Armenians as well as the left. According to "Neues Deutschland" the Grey Wolves are the largest far-right organization in Germany by membership as of 2013. A 2014 "Der Spiegel" article estimated their membership to stand at no fewer than 10,000 people. A 2017 article published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education estimated over 18,000 members. Its members have actively engaged in attacks on and clashes with Kurds in Germany.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The most important Grey Wolves-affiliated Turkish organization in Germany is "Türk Federasyon" (Avrupa Demokratik Ülkücü Türk Dernekleri Federasyonu, ADÜTDF), which has around 200 member organizations. Founded in 1978 by 64 nationalist organizations it declined in the 1980s, but revived in the 1990s and claimed to have doubled its membership following the Solingen arson attack of 1993. It denies any direct links with the Grey Wolves in Turkey or the MHP, however, its monthly journal publishes articles praising the MHP and denouncing left-wing and Kurdish organizations in Turkey and Germany. Furthermore, in May 1998 MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli addressed a crowd of 15,000 German Turks at the "Türk Federasyon" annual meeting. Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister stated that "Türk Federasyon" is a "melting pot of extreme nationalists with Turkish migrant background". "Türk Federasyon" alone has 7,000 active members (for comparison, the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) has 5,000 members). According to educationalist Kemal Bozay, their influence on third generation Turkish youth—who are "looking for an identity"—has "increased significantly". They had ties to the banned Turkish-nationalistic outlaw motorcycle club Osmanen Germania BC.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The 2013 Annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior said that as a result of a June 2013 search by police in three German federal states "two live arms with ammunition, blank-firing guns, batons, electric stun guns and Samurai swords" were seized from members of the Grey Wolves.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state where 70 Grey Wolves associations with more than 2,000 members operated in 2011, also monitors the organization. Nevertheless, , a Social Democratic Party member of the state's parliament, stated in a 2011 interview that the threat of the Grey Wolves in Germany is underestimated. He said, "When thousands of Turkish right-wing radicals come together in Essen, we're not worried. But if 100 members of NPD march, we immediately organize a counter-demonstration." , a Christian Democratic Union member of North Rhine-Westphalia's state parliament, stated in an interview that the Grey Wolves "are in this country, unfortunately, too often ignored". He also added that they have a large number of sympathizers among young people. Another important organisation affiliated with the Grey Wolves are the ATIB (Turkish: "Avrupa Türk-İslam Birliği, ATİB"; German: "Union der Türkisch-Islamischen Kulturvereine in Europa").


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: According to the Baden-Württemberg State Government, there are 45 Grey Wolves clubs and associations in that state as of 2012. These associations are often given non-political names (usually cultural and athletic) to conceal their identity.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: As early as 1979 the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy reported that clashes between the Grey Wolves and the Dutch-Turkish Workers Association (HTIB) occurred on May Day celebrations. Organizations such as Turkish Federation Netherlands ("Turkse Federatie Nederland", TFN) and Turkish Islamic Federation ("Turks Islamitische Federatie") have links to the Grey Wolves. According to Wangmo and Yazilitas, the Grey Wolves in the Netherlands have engaged in a variety of activities, ranging from criminal activities and nationalist propaganda to support of football teams. The organization was more influential in the 1990s when many first-generation Turkish immigrants "maintained a deep interest in Turkish politics and who had a deeply felt Turkish identity." Grey Wolves activists have participated—with varying successes—in the local politics of several Dutch municipalities. In November 2020, VVD MP Bente Becker introduced a motion to ban the Grey Wolves. The motion was supported by 147 members of the parliament with 3 members voting against it. All three votes against the motion came from Denk.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On September 13, 2015, an explosion occurred at a Kurdish civil center in Stockholm, Sweden, following clashes between Turks, Kurds and anti-fascists at a rally organised by the Swedish Grey Wolves.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: The Swedish Green Party was hit by a political scandal in April 2016, as images emerged of party member and Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan attending a dinner party alongside leading members of the Grey Wolves. Kaplan resigned when a 2009 video was made public in which he compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to that of Jews by Nazi Germany. The Sweden Democrats party have called for the Grey Wolves to be banned in Europe and for its members in Sweden to be deported.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: On May 13, 1981 Mehmet Ali Ağca, an alleged Grey Wolves member, attempted to murder Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square. The masterminds were not identified and the organization's role remains unclear. According to Daniel Pipes and Khalid Duran Grey Wolves appear to have been involved in the assassination attempt and write that Ağca "in his own confused way mixed Turkish nationalist sentiments with fundamentalist Islam." However, Italian investigators could not establish his link to the Grey Wolves.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Grey Wolves members and leaders have been involved in international drug trafficking since the 1980s. In the early 1980s U.S. anti-terrorism officials at the State Department reported that Türkeş is "widely believed to have been involved" in moving heroin from Turkey into Western Europe. According Stephen E. Ambrose, the leaders of Grey Wolves had built in the late 1980s an army by trading drugs for military equipment, ranging from assault helicopters to tanks. Drugs were transported to Italy, where organized crime processed them. According to Peter Dale Scott, the author of the book "American War Machine", in 2010 there were drug producing and dealing groups that had clear ties with the Grey Wolves and its affiliated political party, MHP.


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: Following the November 2020 ban of the Grey Wolves in France for hate speech and violence, and the calls for similar actions to be taken in the Netherlands and Germany, the European Parliament urged, on 20 May 2021, that the 27 member states of the European Union to designate the Grey Wolves as a terrorist group, and thus, marking the first time that an EU institution has linked the Grey Wolves to terrorism. The Turkish government reacted to the EP report by calling it "biased" and "unacceptable", because, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç, the Grey Wolves are "a legal movement, which is associated with a long-established political party in Turkey." The MFA claimed the "slanders" are "fabricated by the anti-Turkey Armenian diaspora as well as PKK and FETÖ circles."


title: Grey Wolves (organization)

text: In September 2021 Representative Dina Titus (D-NV) proposed designating the Grey Wolves as a terrorist group through an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The proposed amendment asked the US Secretary of State to provide "a detailed report of the activities of the Grey Wolves organization undertaken against US interests, allies, and international partners" and determine if the organization "meet the criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization." The state-run Anadolu Agency claimed that the Gülen movement was behind the move.


The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private schools in Scotland may choose to use GCSEs from England.


title: General Certificate of Secondary Education

text: Each GCSE qualification is offered in a specific school subject (English literature, English language, mathematics, science, history, geography, art and design, design and technology, business studies, classical civilisation, drama, music, foreign languages, etc).


text: The Department for Education has drawn up a list of preferred subjects known as the English Baccalaureate for England on the results in eight GCSEs including English, mathematics, the sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, computer science), history, geography, and an ancient or modern foreign language.


text: Studies for GCSE examinations take place over a period of two or three academic years (depending upon the subject, school, and exam board), starting in Year 9 or Year 10 for the majority of students, with examinations being sat at the end of Year 11 in England and Wales.


text: Before the introduction of GCSEs, students took CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) or the more academically challenging O-Level (General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level) exams, or a combination of the two, in various subjects. The CSE broadly covered GCSE grades C-G or 4–1, and the O-Level covered grades A*-C or 9–4, but the two were independent qualifications, with different grading systems. The separate qualifications were criticised for disadvantaging the bottom 42% of O-Level entrants who failed to receive a qualification, and the highest-achieving CSE entrants who had no opportunity to demonstrate higher ability.


text: In its later years, O-Levels were graded on a scale from A to E, with a U (ungraded) grade below that. Before 1975, the grading scheme varied between examination boards, but typically there were "pass" grades of 1 to 6 and "fail" grades of 7 to 9. However the grades were not displayed on certificates.


text: The CSE was graded on a numerical scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest, and 5 being the lowest passing grade. Below 5 there was a U (ungraded) grade. The highest grade, 1, was considered equivalent to an O-Level C grade or above, and achievement of this grade often indicated that the student could have taken an O-Level course in the subject to achieve a higher qualification. As the two were independent qualifications with separate syllabi, a separate course of study would have to be taken to "convert" a CSE to an O-Level in order to progress to A-Level.


text: There was a previous attempt to unite these two disparate qualifications in the 1980s, with a trial "16+" examination in some subjects, awarding both a CSE and an O-Level certificate, before the GCSE was introduced. The final O-level/CSE examinations were sat in 1987.


text: GCSEs were introduced in September 1986 to establish a national qualification for those who decided to leave school at 16, without pursuing further academic study towards qualifications such as A-Levels or university degrees. They replaced the former CSE and O-Level qualifications, uniting the two qualifications to allow access to the full range of grades for more students. However, the exam papers of the GCSE sometimes had a choice of questions, designed for the more able and the less able candidates.


text: Upon introduction, the GCSEs were graded on a letter scale, from A to G, with a C being set as roughly equivalent to an O-Level Grade C, or a CSE Grade 1, and thus achievable by roughly the top 25% of each cohort.


text: Over time, the range of subjects offered, the format of the examinations, the regulations, the content, and the grading of GCSE examinations has altered considerably. Numerous subjects have been added and changed, and various new subjects are offered in the modern languages, ancient languages, vocational fields, and expressive arts, as well as citizenship courses.


text: In 1994, the A* grade was added above the grade A, to further differentiate attainment at the very highest end of the qualification. This remained the highest grade available until 2017. The youngest pupil to gain an A* grade was Thomas Barnes, who earned an A* in GCSE Mathematics at the age of 7.


text: Initially, the mathematics papers were set in three tiers: Higher; Intermediate; and Foundation, to cover different mathematical abilities. The Higher level corresponded to grades A-C; the Intermediate level corresponded to grades C-E; and the Foundation level corresponded to grades E-G. However, it was later realised that nobody who sat the Foundation level had any chance of passing the subject at grade C, so this arrangement was replaced by a two-tier arrangement where the Intermediate and Foundation levels were merged. This brought the subject into line with other subjects that typically had foundation and higher level papers. This meant that somebody who sat the new Foundation level could now achieve a grade C, which was considered the formal pass level.


text: With the introduction of numbered grades, the Higher tier provides grades 9-4 and the Foundation tier provides grades 5-1.


text: Between 2005 and 2010, a variety of reforms were made to GCSE qualifications, including increasing modularity and a change to the administration of non-examination assessment.


text: From the first assessment series in 2010, controlled assessment replaced coursework in various subjects, requiring more rigorous exam-like conditions for much of the non-examination assessed work, and reducing the opportunity for outside help in coursework.


text: Under the Conservative government of David Cameron, and Education Secretary Michael Gove, various changes were made to GCSE qualifications taken in England. Before a wide range of reforms, interim changes were made to existing qualifications, removing the January series of examinations as an option in most subjects, and requiring that 100% of the assessment in subjects from the 2014 examination series is taken at the end of the course. These were a precursor to the later reforms.


text: From 2015, a large-scale programme of reform began in England, changing the marking criteria and syllabi for most subjects, as well as the format of qualifications, and the grading system.


text: Under the new scheme, all GCSE subjects were revised between 2015 and 2018, and all new awards will be on the new scheme by summer 2020. The new qualifications are designed such that most exams will be taken at the end of a full 2-year course, with no interim modular assessment, coursework, or controlled assessment, except where necessary (such as in the arts). Some subjects will retain coursework on a non-assessed basis, with the completion of certain experiments in science subjects being assumed in examinations, and teacher reporting of spoken language participation for English GCSEs as a separate report.


text: Other changes include the move to a numerical grading system, to differentiate the new qualifications from the old-style letter-graded GCSEs, publication of core content requirements for all subjects, and an increase in longer, essay-style questions to challenge students more. Alongside this, a variety of low-uptake qualifications and qualifications with significant overlap will cease, with their content being removed from the GCSE options, or incorporated into similar qualifications. A range of new GCSE subjects were also introduced for students to study from 2017, 2018. 2019, and 2020.


text: GCSE examinations in English and mathematics were reformed with the 2015 syllabus publications, with these first examinations taking places in 2017. The remainder were reformed with the 2016 and 2017 syllabus publications, leading to first awards in 2018 and 2019, respectively.


text: For GCSE Science, the old single-award "science" and "additional science" options are no longer available, being replaced with a double award "combined science" option (graded on the scale 9–9 to 1–1 and equivalent to 2 GCSEs). Alternatively, students can take separate qualifications in chemistry, biology, and physics. Other removed qualifications include a variety of design technology subjects, which are reformed into a single "design and technology" subject with multiple options, and various catering and nutrition qualifications, which are folded into "food technology". Finally, several "umbrella" GCSEs such as "humanities", "performing arts", and "expressive arts" are dissolved, with those wishing to study those subjects needing to take separate qualifications in the incorporated subjects.


text: These reforms do not directly apply in Wales and Northern Ireland, where GCSEs will continue to be available on the A*-G grading system. However, due to legislative requirements for comparability between GCSEs in the three countries, and allowances for certain subjects and qualifications to be available in Wales and Northern Ireland, some 9–1 qualifications will be available, and the other changes are mostly adopted in these countries as well.


text: In Northern Ireland, a decision was taken by Minister of Education, Peter Wier (DUP), in 2016 to align the A* Grade to the 9 Grade of the English reformed qualifications. The first award of the new A* grade being in 2019. A C* grade was also introduced in Northern Ireland to align to the 5 Grade in England, again with first awarding in 2019. GCSEs in Northern Ireland remain modular and science practicals can count towards the overall grade outcome. Speaking and listening also remains a component of the GCSE English Language specification.


text: Historically, there were a variety of regional examination boards, or awarding organisations (AOs), who set examinations in their area. The 5 examination boards include:


text: The examination boards operate under the supervision of Ofqual (The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) in England, Qualifications Wales in Wales, and the CCEA in Northern Ireland.


text: In England, AQA, OCR, and Pearson operate under their respective brands. Additionally, WJEC operate the brand Eduqas, which develops qualifications in England. CCEA qualifications are not available in England.


text: In Wales, WJEC is the only accredited awarding body for GCSEs in the public sector, and thus no other board formally operates in Wales. However, some qualifications from the English boards are available as designated qualifications in some circumstances, due to not being available from WJEC.


text: In Northern Ireland, CCEA operates as both a board and a regulator. Most qualifications from the English boards are also available, with the exception of English language and the sciences, due to requirements for speaking and practical assessment, respectively.


text: Students usually take at least 5 GCSEs in Key Stage 4, in order to satisfy the long-standing headline measure of achieving 5 A*-C grades, including English, Mathematics, and Science. The exact qualifications taken by students vary from school to school and student to student, but schools are encouraged to offer at least one pathway that leads to qualification for the English Baccalaureate, requiring GCSEs in English language, English literature, mathematics, science (including computer science), a modern or ancient language, and history or geography.


text: The list of currently available GCSE subjects is much shorter than before the reforms, as the new qualifications in England all have core requirements set by the regulator, Ofqual, for each subject. In addition, there are several subjects where only one board offers qualifications, including some that are only available in one country of the UK for that reason. The following lists are sourced from the exam board websites.


text: These are the requirements for achieving the English Baccalaureate headline measure in league tables, from 2017 onwards. Other subjects, especially religious studies, citizenship studies, computer science, or physical education are compulsory in majority of secondary schools as these subjects form part of the National Curriculum at Key Stage 4.


text: GCSEs are awarded on a graded scale, and cross two levels of the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF): Level 1 and Level 2. These two levels roughly correspond, respectively, to foundation and higher tier in tiered GCSE qualifications. Level 1 qualifications constitute GCSEs at grades G, F, E, and D or 1, 2, and 3. Level 2 qualifications are those at grades C, B, A, and A* or 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.


text: The tiering of qualifications allows a subset of grades to be reached in a specific tier's paper. Formerly, many subjects were tiered, but with the mid-2010s reform, the number of tiered subjects reduced dramatically, including the removal of tiering from the GCSE English specifications. Untiered papers allow any grade to be achieved. Coursework and controlled assessment tasks are always untiered.


text: In the past, mathematics qualifications offered a different set of tiers, with three. These were foundation tier at grades G, F, E, and D; intermediate tier at grades E, D, C, and B; and higher tier at grades C, B, A, and A*. This eventually changed to match the tiers in all other GCSE qualifications.


text: When GCSEs were first introduced in 1988, they were graded on a letter scale in each subject: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G being pass grades, with a U (unclassified) grade below that which did not qualify the student for a certificate.


text: These grades were initially set such that a GCSE grade C was equivalent to an O-Level grade C or a CSE grade 1, though changes in marking criteria and boundaries over the years mean that this comparison is only approximate.


text: Infrequently, X and Q grades are awarded. X indicates that a course was not completed in full, and therefore an appropriate grade cannot be calculated. The Q (query) grade is a temporary grade that requires the school to contact the examining body. These latter two grades are both usually provisional, and are replaced with a regular grade once any issues have been resolved. X grades are also sometimes used for other purposes, on rare occasions, such as to indicate that an examiner found offensive material or hate speech within a student's responses. In some cases, this may lead to the student losing all marks for that paper or course. These grades are most common in subjects which discuss ethical issues, such as Biology, Religious Studies, and Citizenship.


text: In 1994, an A* grade was added above the initial A grade to indicate exceptional achievement, above the level required for the A grade.


text: Under the letter grade scheme, foundation tier papers assess content at grades C to G, while higher tier papers assess content at grades A* to C. In foundation tier papers, the student can obtain a maximum grade of a C, while in a higher tier paper, they can achieve a minimum grade of a D. If a higher tier candidate misses the D grade by a small margin, they are awarded an E. Otherwise, the grade below E in these papers is U. In untiered papers, students can achieve any grade in the scheme. This scheme has been phased out in England, but remains in Wales and Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, the A* grade has been adjusted upwards with the introduction of the numerical scheme in England, such that an A* is equivalent to a new English grade 9. Northern Ireland also added a C* grade to line up with the grade 5 in the English grading.


text: From 2017 in England (and in Wales and Northern Ireland on qualifications from the English-based awarding bodies), most GCSEs are now assessed on a 9-point scale, using numbers from 9 to 1, and, like before, a U (unclassified) grade for achievement below the minimum pass mark. Under this system, 9 is the highest grade, and is set above the former A* classification, equivalent to the new Northern Irish A* grade. The former C grade is set at the new grade 4, now known as a "standard pass", and grade 5 being considered a "strong pass" under the new scheme.


text: Although fewer qualifications have tiered examinations than before, the tiering system still exists. At foundation tier, the grades 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are available, while at higher tier, the grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are targeted. Once again, if a higher-tier student misses the grade 4 mark by a small margin, they are awarded a grade 3. Controlled assessment and coursework tasks are untiered.The youngest person known to have achieved a grade 9 is Ellie Barnes who achieved the grade in Mathematics aged 8 years old.


text: GCSE results are published by the examination board in August, for the previous exam series in April to June of the same year. They are usually released one week after the A-Level results, on the Thursday which falls between 20 August and 26 August. The examination results are released to centres (schools) prior to the release to candidates and the public. Examination results are released by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents the main GCSE awarding organisations. Some boards and schools release results online, although many still require students to attend in person to collect their results from the centre they sat exams at.


text: In England, these results then go on to inform league tables published in the following academic year, with headline performance metrics for each school.


text: Note: In the final year DES statistics for O-Levels are available, and across all subjects, 6.8% of candidates obtained a grade A, and 39.8% achieved grades A to C.


text: In the past, many GCSE qualifications used a modular system, where some assessment (up to 60% under the 'terminal rule') could be submitted prior to the final examination series. This allowed for students to take some units of a GCSE before the final examination series, and thus gave indication of progress and ability at various stages, as well as allowing for students to resit exams in which they did not score as highly, in order to boost their grade, before receiving the qualification.


text: Various qualifications were available as both modular and linear schemes, and schools could choose whichever fit best for them.


text: Under the Conservative government of David Cameron, and Education Secretary Michael Gove, reforms were initiated which converted all GCSEs from 2012 (for assessment from 2014) to de facto linear schemes, in advance of the introduction of new specifications between 2015 and 2018 (for first assessment from 2017 to 2020). These new rules required that 100% of the assessment in a GCSE be submitted in the final examination series, at the same time as applying for certification of the full qualification. The examination boards complied by modifying the syllabi of the remaining GCSE qualifications to remove modular components.


text: Both modular and linear assessment have been politically contentious, and the opposition Labour Party UK, and particularly the former MP Tristram Hunt stated that it was their policy that such reforms be halted and reversed, maintaining modular assessment in both GCSEs and A-Levels. The modular scheme is supported by the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.


text: In some subjects, one or more controlled assessment or coursework assignments may also be completed. These may contribute either a small or large proportion of the final grade. In practical and performance subjects, they generally have a heavier weighting to reflect the difficulty and potential unfairness of conducting examinations in these areas.


text: In the past, these were available in a variety of subjects, including extended writing in English, the sciences, business, and foreign languages; practical assessment in the sciences and technology subjects; and speaking assessments in languages. Since the 2010s reform, the availability has been cut back, with mostly only design and technology subjects and performing arts retaining their controlled assessment contributions. In English language, the spoken language assessment has been downgraded to an endorsement which is reported separately on the English certificate, not contributing to the grade. The English spoken language assessments are set throughout the course and assessed by teachers. Students can be awarded a Pass, Merit, Distinction or Not Classified. In the sciences, practical exercises are a required part of the qualification, but are not directly assessed; they are only endorsed by a teacher's statement.


text: The balance between controlled assessment and examinations is contentious, with the time needing to be set aside for coursework sessions being seen as a burden on the school timetable. However, the use of controlled assessment allows for the marking of some work outside of examination season, and can ease the burden on students to perform well on the day of the examination.


text: For pupils with learning difficulties, an injury/repetitive strain injury (RSI) or a disability, help is offered in these forms:


text: Any of the above must be approved by the examination board. Other forms of help are available with the agreement of the examination board, but the above are the most common.


text: If a student is ill or an unforeseen circumstance occurs that may affect their performance in an examination, they can apply for special consideration from the examination board. The procedures vary depending on how much the student has completed, but in the case of sitting an examination, they may receive a percentage increase on their grade to reflect this, or a consideration of their coursework and other assessment alongside their predicted grades, to calculate a fair grade based on their other attainment.


text: GCSEs, BTECs or other Level 2 qualifications are generally required in order to pursue Level 3 qualifications such as A-Levels or BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) beyond the age of 16. The requirement of 5 or more A*–C or 9–4 grades, including English and mathematics, is often a requirement for post-16 qualifications in sixth form colleges, further education colleges and institutes of technology after leaving secondary school. Where the subject taken post-16 has also been taken at GCSE, it is often required that the student achieved a grade C, 4, or 5 as a minimum at GCSE.


text: Most universities, in addition to their post-16 requirements, seek that their candidates have grades of C or 4 or higher in GCSE English and mathematics. Many of those who achieve below this standard will later retake GCSE English and mathematics to improve their grade. The November examination series exists for this purpose, to allow a faster path to gain these grades than waiting until the following summer's main series. Leading universities often take into account performance at GCSE level, sometimes expecting applicants to have a high proportion of A and A* grades.


text: GCSEs in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland are part of the Regulated Qualifications Framework. A GCSE at grades G, F, E, D, 1, 2, or 3 is a Level 1 qualification. A GCSE at C, B, A, A*, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 is a Level 2 qualification. Qualifications are not awarded to grades U, X or Q. Level 2 qualifications are much more sought-after, and generally form minimum requirements for jobs and further study expectations.


text: The BTEC is another Level 1/2 qualification available in the same territories as the GCSE, and is graded at 5 levels. At Level 2, comparable to A*, A, B, and C respectively are the Distinction*, Distinction, Merit, and Pass. A BTEC at Level 1 is simply marked as "Level 1", with no subdivision. Below that level, a U is awarded, as in GCSEs. Other qualifications at this level include Cambridge Nationals, Key Skills, and Functional Skills.


text: The comparable qualifications in Scotland are the National 4 and National 5 awards (formerly Standard Grades and/or Intermediates).


text: The international version of the GCSE is the IGCSE, which can be taken anywhere in the world and includes additional options relating to coursework and the language the qualification is pursued in. All subjects completed in the fifth of the European Baccalaureate are generally equivalent to the GCSE subjects.


text: The education systems of current and former British territories, such as Gibraltar, and Nigeria, also offer the qualification, as supplied by the same examination boards. Other former British colonies, such as Singapore and Zimbabwe, continue to use the O-Level qualification.


text: In the United States, a high school diploma is required for entry into college or university. In the UK, this is considered to be at the level of the GCSE, awarded at Year 11. For college and university admissions in the UK, a high school diploma may be accepted in lieu of the GCSE if an average grade better than D+ is obtained in subjects with a GCSE counterpart.


text: As A-Levels are generally expected for UK university admission, a high school diploma is not considered enough for direct university entry in the UK. Advanced Placement programmes or International Baccalaureate are considered equal to the A-Level and earn points on the UCAS tariff. They may therefore be accepted in lieu of A-Levels for university entry in the UK by US students. However, entry requirements differ at each university and may take subsequent work history after high school in place of A-Levels/AP for future study applications.


text: The SAT Reasoning Test and SAT Subject Tests, or the ACT may also be considered in an offer for direct university entry.


text: US students who have studied at a university, a senior college, a community college; or graduated with a Certificate, Diploma or associate degree may have their credits and award transferred into a UK university, subject to entry requirements.


text: The "Diplôme National du Brevet" (previously "Brevet des Collèges") is generally considered to be comparable to four GCSEs. The "Brevet" is usually sat in troisième (or year 10 in England and Wales).


text: Statistics released by London's Poverty Profile found overall GCSE attainment in London to be greater than the rest of England. 39% of pupils in Inner London and 37% in Outer London did not get five GCSEs at A* to C, compared with 42% in the rest of England. Also, according to an ITV News report, UK students tend to outperform Jersey students on GCSE examinations.


text: Gender bias is another area of concern. Department of Education data shows that the relative performance gap between girls and boys widened significantly under GCSEs, compared with O-Levels.


text: The declining number of pupils studying foreign languages in the UK has been a major concern of educational experts for many years. In 2015, Paul Steer, the Exam Board Chief of the British exam board OCR, expressed that "unless we act soon, even GCSE French and German could face the chop".


text: When the GCSE system was introduced, there were comments that it was a dumbing down from the previous GCE O-Level system (as it took the focus away from the theoretical side of many subjects, and taught pupils about real-world implications and issues relating to ICT and citizenship).


text: In addition, the proportions of candidates awarded high grades at GCSE have been rising for many years, which critics attribute to grade inflation. By comparing pupils' scores in the YELLIS ability test with their GCSE results over a period of about 20 years, Robert Coe found a general improvement in grades awarded which ranges from 0.2 (science) to 0.8 (maths) of a GCSE grade. Only slightly more than half of pupils sitting GCSE exams achieve the 5 A* to C grades required for most forms of academic further education.


text: One of the important differences between previous educational qualifications (and the earlier grading of A-Levels) and the later GCSE qualifications was supposed to be a move from norm-referenced marking to criterion-referenced marking. In a norm-referenced grading system, fixed percentages of candidates achieve each grade. With criterion-referenced grades, in theory, all candidates who achieve the criteria can achieve the grade. A comparison of a clearly norm-referenced assessment, such as the NFER Cognitive Ability Test or CAT, with GCSE grading seems to show an unexpected correlation, which challenges the idea that the GCSE is a properly criterion-based assessment.


text: Senior school leaders, the NSPCC, and Childline have expressed concern that GCSEs in their current exam-only format are too stressful and will lead to mental health crises. Students in 2019 were subjected to more exams and spent longer in the exam hall than their 2016 counterparts. While a GCSE student in 2016 had an average of 18 exams to prepare for, totalling 24 hours and 30 minutes, the average examinee in 2019 sat 22 exams, totalling 33 hours.


text: The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) surveyed 606 headteachers from schools that had entered pupils for exam-only GCSEs. They found reports of panic attacks, sleepless nights, depression, extreme fatigue, self-harming, and suicidal thoughts.


text: Even before all GCSE qualifications adopted the exam-only format, students complained about the memorization load, the need to write continuously for long hours, how their social lives have been affected and the need for sleeping pills and painkillers. They have observed younger siblings starting to panic about the exams at the beginning of the course- not just in the final year or the final few months.


text: The incorporation of GCSE awards into school league tables, and the setting of targets at school level at above national average levels of attainment, has been criticised. At the time of introduction, the E grade was intended to be equivalent to the CSE grade 4, and so obtainable by a candidate of average/median ability. Sir Keith Joseph set schools a target of 90% of their pupils obtaining at least a grade F (which was the "average" grade achieved in the past). This target was reached nationally about 20 years later. David Blunkett went further and set schools the goal of 50% of 16-year-olds gaining 5 GCSEs or equivalent at grade C and above, although these grades were previously only obtained by the top 30%. This was achieved with the help of equivalent and largely vocational qualifications. Labelling schools as failing if 40% of their pupils do not achieve at least 5 Cs, including English and Maths at GCSE, has also been criticised, as it essentially requires 40% of each intake to achieve the grades only obtained by the top 20% when GCSE was introduced.


text: In recent years, concerns about standards has led some public schools to complement GCSEs with IGCSEs within their curriculum, and to take their pupils straight to A-Level or the BTEC. Other schools, such as Manchester Grammar School, are replacing the GCSEs with IGCSEs in which there is an option to do no coursework. The new science syllabus has led to many public schools switching to the IGCSE Double Award syllabus.


text: The extent of the switching away from the terminal exam only GCSE to the IGCSEs in public and private schools was revealed in answers to a parliamentary question posed by Labour MP Lucy Powell in November 2018. The option to choose to do so is no longer open to state schools since the introduction of the new GCSEs graded 1–9.


text: The answers showed that in 2017–18, 91% of international GCSE entries in core (EBacc) subjects were in independent schools. A student in an independent school was 136 times more likely to follow an IGCSE than one in a state-funded school. Looking at entries in non-EBacc and EBacc subjects shows that three out of every four IGCSEs were sat in private schools.


text: The Labour Party has argued that it is grossly unfair that private school pupils get an easier path into universities as a consequence. The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner MP, said: "We urgently need to get to the bottom of this situation. A full, root-and-branch review of Tory reforms to qualifications and their impact on pupils is needed."


text: Michael Gove, the architect of these reformed examinations, said in 2009: "Denying IGCSEs in core subjects to children in state schools will only serve to increase the level of inequality in education."


text: Teachers and pupils have the option to question exam results and have the scripts marked again if they feel the grade awarded does not reflect the pupil's ability and expectations; or if they review a copy of the script and notice a marking error. In recent years, there have been complaints that GCSEs and GCE A-Levels were marked unfairly. (In 2012, for the first time in the history of the exams, the proportion of all GCSEs awarded an A*-C grade fell.)


text: This can be seen as, in general, more appeals being submitted each year, however the appeals rarely result in any grade changes as only 182 out of 6.2 million (0.003%) grades were changed in England in 2018, with most upheld appeals ending in no change of marks.


text: In one incident concerning the 2016 GCSE biology exam, there were complaints about the apparent lack of biology content in the exam. One of the questions in the biology exam asked students to define an "independent company", which some students perceived to be a business studies question.


text: The May 2017 English literature exam (under the regulation of OCR) wrongly implied that Tybalt, a character in "Romeo and Juliet" was not a Capulet. This serious flaw in the question confused many of the students. OCR accepted responsibility and claimed no pupil would be disadvantaged. The question was worth 40 marks.


text: In 2022, advance information was given by examination boards to students, providing them with information on what topics would/ wouldn't be on the exam. However, in the Physics paper 1 exam, a topic that was stated as "Not Assessed" came up, AQA accepted the mistake and awarded all students the full (9) marks to the question. Also, in 2022, a question on one of the higher Maths papers was leaked hours before students sat them. The exam board Edexcel has since apologised and conducted a full investigation.


text: In 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, GCSE examinations, along with all other May and June exams that year were cancelled. The government announced that GCSE and A-level grades would be awarded through teachers' assessments based on mock exams, coursework and other available evidence, moderated by a statistical standardisation model developed by Ofqual. This is the first cancellation of GCSEs since they were introduced.


text: An algorithm for deciding grades was originally introduced by Ofqual, which got used for A-Level grades. However, this caused backlash, causing the government to ultimately replace the algorithm with Center Assessed Grades for GCSEs on 17 August.


text: In 2021, GCSEs, along with A-level and AS exams, were cancelled again due to the pandemic and replaced with teacher assessed grades. The grades were decided based on previous mock exams, homework, classwork, and optional examinations set by Ofqual.


text: Support for scrapping GCSEs in England has increased because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rethinking Assessment was established in September 2020 to call for assessment reform in secondary education, including scrapping GCSEs. Members include multi-academy trusts including the Academies Enterprise Trust and Bohunt Academy Trust, independents schools including Eton College, Bedales School and St Paul's Girls' School, and Lord Baker of Dorking, the Conservative who introduced GCSEs as education secretary in 1986.


text: In 2021, former Conservative prime minister John Major led calls by him and eight former education secretaries, both Conservative and Labour, for GCSEs to either be scrapped and replaced, reformed or reviewed. Former education secretaries who called for them to be scrapped included Lord Baker, Lord Blunkett and Alan Johnson, while those calling for changes, reforms or a review included Major and former education secretaries Baroness Morgan of Cotes, Justine Greening, Charles Clarke and Ruth Kelly. Former Labour schools minister David Miliband also called for them to be scrapped, as did Conservative MP Robert Halfon, who chairs the Education Select Committee in the House of Commons. Support for scrapping GCSEs also came from teaching unions, including the National Education Union which is the largest teaching union in the country, and a group of centrist one-nation Conservative MPs. Schools Minister Nick Gibb rejected the proposal, thinking that "it would be a huge mistake to abolish the tried and tested GCSEs".


text: In 2022, former Labour prime minister Tony Blair called for GCSEs and A-Levels to be scrapped and replaced by a new qualification and an examination based on the International Baccalaureate. Before the age of 16, pupils would be assessed through pupil assessment. From 16 to 18, they would be assessed continually on their subject knowledge and skills through multiple methods including examination, which would determine their final grade. Blair declined enacting a similar proposal when he was prime minister.


title: Eastern Promises

text: Eastern Promises is a 2007 gangster film directed by David Cronenberg from a screenplay by Steven Knight. The film tells the story of Anna (Naomi Watts), a Russian-British midwife who delivers the baby of a drug-addicted 14-year old Russian prostitute who dies in childbirth. After Anna learns that the teen was forced into prostitution by the Russian Mafia in London, the leader of the Russian gangsters (Armin Mueller-Stahl) threatens the baby's life, and Anna is warned off by his menacing henchman (Viggo Mortensen).


title: Eastern Promises

text: Principal photography began in November 2006, in locations in and around London. The film has been noted for its treatment of the subject of sex trafficking, and for its violence and realistic depiction of Russian career criminals, which includes detailed portrayal of the tattoos which indicate their crimes and criminal status. "Eastern Promises" received critical acclaim, appearing on several critics' "top 10 films" lists for 2007 and has since become a cult film. The film has won several awards, including the Audience Prize for best film at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Best Actor award for Mortensen at the British Independent Film Awards. The film received twelve Genie Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations. Mortensen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.


title: Eastern Promises

text: Anna Khitrova, a midwife at a London hospital, finds a Russian-language diary on the body of Tatiana, a teenage girl who dies in childbirth, and a calling card for the Trans-Siberian Restaurant owned by Semyon, an old vor in the Russian mafia. Anna sets out to track down Tatiana's family so that she can find a home for the baby, and meets with Semyon, who offers to help. Though Anna's mother Helen is open to the idea, Anna's Russian uncle Stepan, a former KGB officer, urges caution, saying that Tatiana was a prostitute. Anna also gives Semyon a photocopy of the diary.


title: Eastern Promises

text: Semyon's driver, Nikolai Luzhin, serves as the family "cleaner" and bodyguard of Kirill, Semyon's son. Kirill, a drunk who repeatedly disappoints Semyon, authorizes an ill-advised hit on a rival Chechen leader with the help of a Kurdish associate, Azim, and without Semyon's approval. Kirill spits on the dead Chechen's body, calling him a pederast, but Nikolai later tells Semyon that the Chechen had been spreading rumors that Kirill was gay. Nikolai removes identifying evidence from the Chechen's body and dumps it in the River Thames.


title: Eastern Promises

text: When Stepan finishes translating Tatiana's diary, Anna learns that Semyon raped Tatiana after Kirill failed to do so, explaining that he would show Kirill how to "break" her. The diary also states that Semyon gave her pills to induce an abortion, and Anna realizes that the baby was fathered by Semyon. Meanwhile, Semyon realizes that Anna knows the truth about the baby and visits her at the hospital. He strikes a deal wherein he will give the location of the girl's family to Anna if she returns the diary. Later, Anna, Helen and Stepan meet Nikolai in a fast food restaurant, where Nikolai takes the diary but denies knowing anything about the deal. Semyon then orders Nikolai to kill Stepan, saying that a Russian cannot be trusted with the information, and Stepan soon goes missing.


title: Eastern Promises

text: As Nikolai rises in rank, Semyon sponsors him as a full member, due in part to Nikolai's protection of Kirill. Meanwhile, the dead Chechen's brothers arrive in London seeking vengeance, and kill Azim's mentally handicapped nephew, whom Azim had forced to kill the Chechen. Azim confesses his role in the hit to Semyon, and Semyon forgives him in exchange for participating in a plan to fool the Chechens: Azim is to lure Nikolai into a meeting at a bath house where he will be ambushed by the Chechens, who believe that he is Kirill. Though the Chechens seriously wound him, Nikolai manages to kill them both before being taken to Anna's hospital.


title: Eastern Promises

text: Yuri, a high-ranking Scotland Yard officer with responsibility for the Russian mafia, meets Nikolai in the hospital, revealing that Nikolai is actually an undercover FSB agent working under license from the British government. Nikolai tells Yuri to have Semyon arrested for statutory rape, with a paternity test of Tatiana's baby as evidence, which will also allow Nikolai to take over the mafia. Anna confronts Nikolai in his hospital bed, and he tells her that Stepan is safe, in a 5-star hotel in Edinburgh where Nikolai sent him for his own protection. She then spots Kirill entering a lift and finds that Tatiana's baby is gone, replaced with a bouquet of roses. She and Nikolai then rush to the spot on the Thames where Nikolai had previously disposed of the Chechen's body and find Kirill sitting by the river, working up the courage to throw his baby sister. Nikolai and Anna persuade him to give the baby back, and Nikolai embraces Kirill, telling him that Semyon is finished, and that they will now be bosses together. Soon after, Nikolai succeeds Semyon as head of the organization, and Anna gains custody of Tatiana's baby, whom she names Christine.


title: Eastern Promises

text: Shooting began in November 2006, and various scenes were filmed in St John Street, Farringdon, London. Filming also took place in Broadway Market, Hackney and in Brompton Cemetery in the London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. The "Trans-Siberian Restaurant" is located in The Farmiloe Building, 34 St John Street, next to Smithfield Market. This is the 6th most popular film and TV location in London, having also been used for "Spooks", "Penelope" and "Batman Begins". When Anna, her mother Helen, and her uncle Stepan meet Nikolai at a fast food restaurant, this was filmed in Bermondsey, south-east London at a Wimpy bar.


title: Eastern Promises

text: The entrance to the "Ankara Social Club" of the film is actually the front door of a residential flat. The Broadway Market hair dresser known as "Broadway Gents Hairstylist" was changed to "Azim's Hair Salon", where in the film one of the Russians is murdered. The owner Mr. Ismail Yesiloglu decided to keep most of the shop front after filming. In the original script, the name was "Ozim's Hair Salon", but it was later changed to "Azim's" as there is no such name as Ozim in Turkish. The "Trafalgar Hospital" is actually the Middlesex Hospital, a hospital in the Fitzrovia area of London, which closed to patients in December 2005. The building in central London, which was knocked down in 2008, had the inscription 'Trafalgar Hospital', matching the style and apparent age of the old Middlesex Hospital, inserted into the legend above the main door. The fight scene in the Turkish Baths was filmed on a custom set based on the Ironmonger Row Baths in Islington.


title: Eastern Promises

text: Viggo Mortensen studied Russian gangsters and their tattoos. Mortensen spent a lot of time with a Russian Mafia specialist, Gilly McKenzie (organised crime specialist for the UN) and also consulted a documentary on the subject called "The Mark of Cain" (2000). The tattoos that he wore, according to the "New York Daily News", were so realistic that diners in a Russian restaurant in London fell silent out of fear, until Mortensen revealed his identity and admitted the tattoos were for a film. From that day on he washed off his tattoos whenever he went off the set. Mortensen said of the significance of the tattoos:


title: Eastern Promises

text: I talked to them [authentic gangsters and Gilly McKenzie] about what they meant and where they were on the body, what that said about where they'd been, what their specialties were, what their ethnic and geographical affiliations were. Basically their history, their calling card, is their body.


title: Eastern Promises

text: Consistent with the trademark violence in much of Cronenberg's work, "Eastern Promises" features a graphically violent fight scene in a steam bath where the combatants wield linoleum knives. When asked in an interview about the difference between "gun violence" and "knife violence," Cronenberg replied, "We have no guns in this movie. There were no guns in the script. The choice of those curved knives we use in the steam bath was mine. They're not some kind of exotic Turkish knives, they're linoleum knives. I felt that these guys could walk around in the streets with these knives, and if they were ever caught, they could say 'we're linoleum cutters'."


title: Eastern Promises

text: Adam Nayman of "Eye Weekly" reported that director Cronenberg said "just don't give the plot away" and Nayman wrote "his request is understandable." Nayman said "there is one scene – the in-depth discussion of which prompted the director's anti-spoiler request referenced at the top of this story – that should rank not only in his personal pantheon of spectacularly deployed gore but among the most exhilaratingly visceral patches of cinema, period, full stop." "Chicago Sun-Times" critic Roger Ebert noted Cronenberg's quote and agreed, saying: "He is correct that it would be fatal, because this is not a movie of what or how, but of why. And for a long time you don't see the why coming."


title: Eastern Promises

text: The film premiered September 8, 2007 at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival where it won the Audience Prize for best film on September 15, 2007. "Eastern Promises" opened in limited release in Russia on September 13, 2007.


title: Eastern Promises

text: In the United States and Canada, the film opened in limited release in 15 theaters on September 14, 2007 and grossed $547,092 — averaging $36,472 per theater. The film opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on September 21, 2007 (expanding to 1,404 theaters) and ranked #5 at the box office, grossing $5,659,133 — an average of $4,030 per theater. The film has grossed $56,106,607 worldwide as of March 17, 2019 — $17,266,000 in the United States and Canada and $38,840,607 in other territories.


title: Eastern Promises

text: The film took part in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival September 20, 2007. The film was shown at the London Film Festival on October 17, 2007 and was released in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2007.


title: Eastern Promises

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 89% based on 200 reviews, with an average rating 7.64/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "David Cronenberg triumphs again, showcasing the Viggo Mortensen's onscreen prowess in a daring performance. Bearing the trademarks of psychological drama and gritty violence, "Eastern Promises" is a very compelling crime story." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Eastern Promises

text: Todd McCarthy of "Variety", David Elliott of "The San Diego Union-Tribune", and film critic Tony Medley noted the twists in the film. Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four out of four stars and wrote ""Eastern Promises" is no ordinary crime thriller, just as Cronenberg is no ordinary director", and said that "Cronenberg has moved film by film into the top rank of directors, and here he wisely reunites with Mortensen" who "digs so deeply into the role you may not recognize him at first." Ebert said the film has a fight scene that "sets the same kind of standard that "The French Connection" set for chases. Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark."


title: Eastern Promises

text: J. Hoberman of "The Village Voice" said "I've said it before and hope to again: David Cronenberg is the most provocative, original, and consistently excellent North American director of his generation." Hoberman said the film is "directed with considerable formal intelligence and brooding power" and continues the trend of "murderous family dramas" seen in "Spider" and "A History of Violence". Hoberman called the film "graphic but never gratuitous in its violence", "garish yet restrained", "a masterful mood piece", "deceptively generic" and said the film "suggests a naturalized version of the recent Russian horror flick "Night Watch"." When describing the cast, Hoberman said "Mueller-Stahl may be perfunctory ... but Vincent Cassel literally flings himself into [his role]" and "Mortensen is even more electrifying as Nikolai than in "A History of Violence"".


title: Eastern Promises

text: Chris Vognar of "The Dallas Morning News" gave the film a "B+" and said "The film's genius performance belongs to the venerable Armin Mueller-Stahl, who plays the family head with a twinkling eye and an air of avuncular, Old World charm." Vognar wrote "Where some may see melodrama, Mr. Cronenberg locates timeless, elemental struggles between good and evil, right and wrong. But he makes sure to place a mysterious gray area front and center, personified here by Mr. Mortensen's Nikolai", writing "Nikolai Luzhin is ... like Ray Bradbury's "Illustrated Man" ... only more dangerous" and "scarily enigmatic." Vognar wrote that "Eastern Promises" shares themes of "ambiguous identity and rage-soaked duality" with "A History of Violence" and said both films "have a lock-step precision and both take a sly kind of joy in subverting genre expectations." Vognar said "Eastern Promises" "is a little too mechanical for its own good ... but the mechanics also produce an admirable crispness and sense of purpose, a sense that the man behind the camera knows exactly what he's doing at all times."


title: Eastern Promises

text: "Film Journal International" critic Doris Toumarkine said the film is a "highly entertaining but sometimes revolting look at a particularly venal branch of the Russian mob." Toumarkine wrote that Mortensen and Watts "are intriguing moral counterpoints. They are also the key ingredients that make "Eastern Promises" a highly delectable and cinematically rich borsht that upscale film fans will devour." She described Mortensen's performance as "startling," called Watts "touching," Cassel "particularly delicious," but said "Mueller-Stahl, Cusack, and Skolimowski don't have as much to chew on." She said the film "is also blessed by Howard Shore's restrained score, which lets the film's other estimable elements breathe through." Toumarkine also said the film is "essentially a character-driven crime thriller but is also a bloody tour de force laced with considerable nudity and sexually bold content that will rattle the squeamish."


title: Eastern Promises

text: Bruce Westbrook of the "Houston Chronicle" gave the film one star out of four and said it had a "contrived plot" and wrote "what it's really about, more than sensitivity for displaced people or social analyses, is violence — hideous, gruesome, over-the-top violence." Westbrook said "For Cronenberg, such cheap sensationalism is business as usual, and this far into his career, that business has slipped into artistic bankruptcy." Westbrook wrote the film "isn't about Russian gangs so much as Cronenberg's own dark passions not just for violence but excruciating carnage, which he brandishes mercilessly" and that the film was "a stifling descent into grim shock and disturbing awe."


title: Eastern Promises

text: "Eastern Promises" won the Audience Prize for best film on September 15, 2007 at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. The film received three Golden Globe nominations for the 65th Golden Globe Awards, being nominated for Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Original Score and a Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama nomination for Mortensen, but the film failed to win any. The film was nominated in five different categories in the British Independent Film Awards for 2007, and won in one category: Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film (for Mortensen).


title: Eastern Promises

text: Mortensen was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor at the 80th Academy Awards, but told the Associated Press: "If there's a strike I will not go." — a reference to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. On February 12, 2008, the strike ended, and he attended the ceremony, although he lost the award to Daniel Day-Lewis for "There Will Be Blood". "Eastern Promises" received twelve nominations at the 28th Genie Awards, tying with the film "Shake Hands with the Devil" for most nominations, and won seven, Best Supporting Actor (Mueller-Stahl), Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Musical Score, Overall Sound, Sound Editing.


title: Eastern Promises

text: Speaking in August 2010, Cassel said that a sequel was discussed with Cronenberg whilst they were filming "A Dangerous Method". Cassel suggested that the sequel will be filmed in Russia with Cassel and Mortensen reprising their roles. In April 2012, producer Paul Webster told Screen International that a sequel was in the works, which would reunite director Cronenberg, writer Knight, and actor Mortensen. The film was said to be made by Webster's new production company Shoebox Films in collaboration with Focus Features and was to begin production in early 2013. That August, however, Cronenberg stated that "Eastern Promises 2" was "dead": "We were supposed to start shooting 'Eastern Promises 2' in October ... [But] It's done. If you don't like it talk to James Schamus at Focus. It was his decision." On December 2, 2020, Knight revealed that the sequel became the upcoming separate Martin Zandvliet film "Small Dark Look" starring Jason Statham.


title: History of Iran

text: The history of Iran is intertwined with the history of a larger region known as Greater Iran, comprising the area from Anatolia in the west to the borders of Ancient India and the Syr Darya in the east, and from the Caucasus and the Eurasian Steppe in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in the south. Central to this area is Iran, commonly known until the mid-20th century as Persia in the Western world.


title: History of Iran

text: Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 7000 BC. The south-western and western part of the Iranian plateau participated in the traditional Ancient Near East with Elam (3200–539 BC), from the Early Bronze Age, and later with various other peoples, such as the Kassites, Mannaeans, and Gutians. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel calls the Persians the "first Historical People". The Medes unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC. The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC), founded by Cyrus the Great, was the first true global superpower state and it ruled from the Balkans to North Africa and also Central Asia, spanning three continents, from their seat of power in Persis (Persepolis). It was the largest empire yet seen and the first world empire. The Achaemenid Empire was the only civilization in all of history to connect over 40% of the global population, accounting for approximately 49.4 million of the world's 112.4 million people in around 480 BC. They were succeeded by the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Empires, who successively governed Iran for almost 1,000 years and made Iran once again a leading power in the world. Persia's arch-rival was the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire.


title: History of Iran

text: The Iranian Empire proper begins in the Iron Age, following the influx of Iranian peoples. Iranian people gave rise to the Medes, the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian Empires of classical antiquity.


title: History of Iran

text: Once a major empire, Iran has endured invasions too, by the Macedonians, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols. Iran has continually reasserted its national identity throughout the centuries and has developed as a distinct political and cultural entity.


title: History of Iran

text: The Muslim conquest of Persia (633–654) ended the Sasanian Empire, and was a turning point in Iranian history. Islamization of Iran took place during the eighth to tenth centuries, leading to the eventual decline of Zoroastrianism in Iran as well as many of its dependencies. However, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity and civilization.


title: History of Iran

text: Iran, with its long history of early cultures and empires, had suffered particularly hard during the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Many invasions of nomadic tribes, whose leaders became rulers in this country, affected it negatively.


title: History of Iran

text: Iran was reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty, which set Shia Islam as the empire's official religion, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam. Functioning again as a leading world power, this time amongst the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, its arch-rival for centuries, Iran had been a monarchy ruled by an emperor almost without interruption from 1501 until the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when Iran officially became an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979.


title: History of Iran

text: Over the course of the first half of the 19th century, Iran lost many of its territories in the Caucasus, which had been a part of Iran for centuries, comprising modern-day Eastern Georgia, Dagestan, Republic of Azerbaijan, and Armenia, to its rapidly expanding and emerging rival neighbor, the Russian Empire, following the Russo-Persian Wars between 1804–1813 and 1826–1828.


title: History of Iran

text: The earliest archaeological artifacts in Iran were found in the Kashafrud and Ganj Par sites that are thought to date back to 10,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. Mousterian stone tools made by Neanderthals have also been found. There are more cultural remains of Neanderthals dating back to the Middle Paleolithic period, which mainly have been found in the Zagros region and fewer in central Iran at sites such as Kobeh, Kunji, Bisitun Cave, Tamtama, Warwasi, and Yafteh Cave. In 1949, a Neanderthal radius was discovered by Carleton S. Coon in Bisitun Cave. Evidence for Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic periods are known mainly from the Zagros Mountains in the caves of Kermanshah and Khorramabad and a few number of sites in the Alborz and Central Iran. During this time, people began creating rock art.