VIDEO: Adriana Lima makes Turkish nationalist ‘grey wolf’ gesture, howls

ISTANBUL

A video has emerged of Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima howling while making the symbolic far-right Turkish nationalist “grey wolf” hand gesture.

In the video, Lima appears with Turkish boxer Alptuğ Öner, who supposedly taught her the gesture. 

Lima initially shouts “bozkurt” (grey wolf in Turkish), then makes the gesture and howls.

The ultranationalist gesture is made by placing the ring and middle fingers on the thumb, forming the head of a wolf. It is inspired by an ancient legend of a grey wolf that guided Turkish tribes from their Central Asian homeland towards the west.  

The gesture has recently been the subject of renewed controversy, after ultranationalists attacked Asian tourists and the Thai Embassy making the grey wolf sign in protest at the alleged abuse of Uighurs in China’s western Xinjiang region.

In response to questions from daily Hürriyet, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli acknowledged similarities with the well-known heavy metal hand gesture. 

“For instance, the grey wolf gesture [of Turkish nationalists] is very similar to the heavy metal gesture. There is only a small difference between two,” Bahçeli said.