Members of the Turkish far-right nationalist Grey Wolves movement can not be reliably allowed to carry weapons, according to Germany’s Cologne Administrative Court’s Monday rule.

The court ruled that there are sufficient factual indications pointing to the group’s anti-constitutional efforts. The decision, announced on Monday, follows the assessment of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which has described the ideology of the Grey Wolves as “racist and anti-Semitic”.

The court’s well-established case law dictates that mere membership of an anti-constitutional association is adequate grounds to assume unreliability under the law on weapons. Therefore, demonstrable knowledge of individual anti-constitutional activities on the part of the affected members is not necessary for such a decision to be made.

The ruling came in response to an application for interim injunction of two members belonging to a local association of the Federation of Turkish-Democratic Idealist Associations in Germany (ADÜTDF). ADÜTDF is the largest umbrella organisation of the “Grey Wolves” in Germany and boasts a membership of over 9,000 individuals.

According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the Grey Wolves represent the largest right-wing extremist organisation in Germany. German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has outlined the group’s ideology as one that “places the Turkish nation at the highest value, politically, territorially, ethnically, and culturally”. This belief system leads to the exaggeration of their Turkish identity and the disparagement of other ethnic groups, which are labelled as “enemies of Turkishness.”

In Germany alone, the Federal Office estimates the number of Grey Wolves supporters at 11,000, indicating a concerning level of extremist sentiment within the country.

The Grey Wolves movement, also known as the Idealist Hearths, is a nationalist and right-wing movement with its roots in Turkey. The movement emerged in the late 1960s and has since expanded its influence among Turkish communities in Turkey and abroad, including in Europe.