Metin Kaplan (born November 14, 1952, in the Turkish province of Erzurum) is the leader of the radical Islamist movement Kalifatsstaat ("caliphate state") which is based in Cologne, Germany. November 14 is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 47 days remaining. ... 1952 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Provinces of Turkey are called iller in Turkish, singular is il (see Turkish alphabet for capitalization of i). ... Erzurum (or Erzerum, Arzen in antiquity, Karin in ancient Armenian, Theodosiupolis or Theodosiopolis during Byzantine rule) is one of the Provinces of Turkey, in the Eastern Anatolia Region, to the east of the country. ... The phrase Islamic fundamentalism is primarily used in the West to describe Islamist groups. ... An Anglicized/Latinized version of the Arabic word خليفة or Khalīfah, Caliph (  listen?) is the term or title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. ... Cologne skyline at night with river Rhine in the foreground and famous Cologne Cathedral on the right. ...

The movement's outspoken goal is to overthrow the government of Turkey and establish an Islamist state in the country. The self-styled "Caliph of Cologne" chose the city of Cologne as his residence. After being closely watched by the German Verfassungsschutz for several years, the movement was outlawed in 2001. Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. ... Cologne skyline at night with river Rhine in the foreground and famous Cologne Cathedral on the right. ... Verfassungsschutz (Constitution Protection) is the short name for any of Germanys federal and state-based secret services for the interior. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

Kaplan, who was prosecuted as an enemy of the state in Turkey and faced the death penalty, came to Germany in 1983 as a refugee, together with his father, Cemaleddin Kaplan, who was a leading figure in Turkish islamist circles in Germany. After his father's death in 1995, Metin Kaplan became leader of the Kalifatsstaat. He is said to have ordered the murder of his rival Ibrahim Sofu in 1996. As the prosecution could only prove that he publicly stated that he would like to see Sofu dead but not that he actually gave a specific order for the murder, he was convicted only for solicitation of murder for which he spent four years in German jail. An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state, such as treason. ... Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offense or a capital crime. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Solicitation is a crime; it is an inchoate offense that consists of a person inciting, counseling, advising, urging, or commanding another to commit a crime with the specific intent that the person solicited commit the crime. ...

In early May 2004, after a decision of the Oberverwaltungsgericht (Nordrhein-Westfalen's highest administrative court), Kaplan lost his refugee status and faced extradition to Turkey. Shortly after the court's decision, before German police could arrest him, Kaplan disappeared from Cologne. After the court decision was temporarily suspended, Kaplan reappeared on May 31, claiming to have been sick during his disappearance. This article is about the month of May. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... With eighteen million inhabitants inhabiting 34,080 km² in western-northwestern Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia (German Nordrhein-Westfalen) is largest in population though only fourth in area among Germanys sixteen federal states. ... Extradition is a formal process by which a criminal suspect held by one government is handed over to another government for trial or, if the suspect has already been tried and found guilty, to serve his or her sentence. ... May 31 is the 151st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (152nd in leap years), with 214 days remaining, as the last day of May. ...

On October 12, the Verwaltungsgericht of Cologne decided that Kaplan could be extradited despite a pending appeal to the Bundesverwaltungsgericht in Leipzig. He was arrested in an internet cafe in Cologne and brought to the Düsseldorf airport, where a chartered Lear Jet took him to Istanbul. On arrival he was immediately arrested by Turkish police and taken to prison. This extradition case is unusual because governments usually refuse to extradite people to face trial for political crimes such as treason and espionage. October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... Cologne skyline at night with river Rhine in the foreground and famous Cologne Cathedral on the right. ... Map of Germany showing Leipzig Leipzig â–¶(?) [ˈlaiptsɪç] (Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk) is the largest city in the federal state (Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. ... E-Corner First internet cafe, was located at Waverley station An Internet cafe or cybercafe is a place where one can use a computer with Internet access for a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. ... Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. ... C-GBFP - Adlair Aviation - Learjet 25 (LJ25) refulling at Cambridge Bay Airport, Nunavut, Canada. ... Shows the Location of the Province Ä°stanbul Istanbul (Turkish: Ä°stanbul; a contraction of Greek εις την πολιν into the city, the former Constantinople, Κωνσταντινούπολις) is the largest city in Turkey, and arguably the most important. ... Extradition is a formal process by which a criminal suspect held by one government is handed over to another government for trial or, if the suspect has already been tried and found guilty, to serve his or her sentence. ... In the standard sense of the phrase, a political crime is an action deemed illegal by a government in order to control real or imagined threats to its survival, at the expense of a range of human rights and freedoms. ... In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ... Espionage is the practice of obtaining secrets (spying) from rivals or enemies for military, political, or economic advantage. ...

Kaplan's trial started on 20 December 2004; in June 2005 he received a sentence of life imprisonment. During the trial, Kaplan was confined to the high security prison of Tekirdag. The main charge brought against him is plotting a terrorist attack against the Turkish government in 1998 and a plot to destroy the Anitkabir. Kaplan conceded that he believes the state of Turkey should be replaced with an Islamist state, but denies to ever have planned to resort to violent means. December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with a length of 30 days The month is named after the Roman goddess Juno (mythology), wife of Jupiter and equivalent to the Greek goddess Hera. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Life imprisonment is a term used for a particular kind of sentence of imprisonment. ... Tekirdag or Tekir Dagh, referred to historically as Rodosto (Greek name: Redestos or Rhaedestos), is a city of European Turkey (Eastern Thrace), which during the period of the Ottoman Empire (before the treaty of Sevres in 1920) belonged in the vilayet of Adrianople. ... 1998(MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Anitkabir - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

See also

• Islam in Germany
• Islam in Turkey