Caliphate State

Caliphate State (Turkish: Hilâfet Devleti; German: Kalifatstaat) is a Turkish Islamist group based in Cologne, Germany.

Caliphate State
Hilâfet Devleti
Kalifatstaat
LeaderMetin Kaplan
FounderCemaleddin Kaplan
Founded1984
HeadquartersCologne
IdeologySunni Islamism
ReligionSunni Islam

History

The Caliphate State was founded in 1984 as the "Union of Islamic Community and Associations" in Cologne by Cemalettin Kaplan after he left a Millî Görüş organization due to ideological disagreements. It started to use the name "Anatolian Federated Islamic State" in 1992 and then changed it to "Caliphate State" in March 1994. It is strongly against the Republic of Turkey and aims to dissolve it.[1] It also views Diyanet and DİTİB as unauthentic and corrupt due to them being part of the Turkish government.[2] With the death of Cemalettin Kaplan in 1995, his son Metin Kaplan took over leadership of the organization. Metin Kaplan, who led the organization during its attempted attack on Turkish Republic Day, was arrested in Germany in 2000, and was extradited to Turkey in 2004. Metin Kaplan plead his innocence despite concurrently praising the attack as a Jihad.[3] Some members of the organization were arrested as a result of the operations carried out by Turkish police units on October 28, 1998 during the attempted Turkish Republic Day attacks.[4][5]

The Caliphate State is a designated terrorist group in Turkey.[6][7]

The group had an estimated 1,300 members at their peak, and its stronghold was in Cologne and other parts of North-Rhine Westphalia.[7] After being on the FOPC watchlist for many years, the Caliphate State was officially banned in 2001 in Germany.[8]

A weekly newspaper of the organization called Ümmet-i Muhammed was also published.[9]

See also

References

  1. "Foreign Extremist Population Shrinking in Germany | DW | 13.05.2003".
  2. "Karases tutuklandı". Hürriyet (gazete)|Hürriyet. 26 March 1999. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  3. "Almanya'da "Kaplancılar"a baskın". Deutsche Welle Türkçe. 28 June 2022. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  4. "Hedef Anıtkabir'di". Milliyet: 6. 2 November 1998.
  5. Önder, Şuşoğlu (3 November 1998). "Kaplan için iade girişimi". Milliyet: 14.
  6. Terörle Mücadele ve Harekat Dairesi Başkanlığı Archived 31 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Olivier Roy; Antoine Sfeir (26 September 2007). The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14640-1.
  8. "Profile: The Caliph of Cologne". 27 May 2004 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  9. Yükleyen, Ahmet (2012). Localizing Islam in Europe. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. p. 239.
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