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HARBERT -- A Turkish
immigrant, fighting to remain in the United States,
said he doesn't understand why the federal
government is going after him.
Ibrahim Parlak, 42, a Kurd who owns a popular Middle
Eastern restaurant in this Berrien County hamlet,
said the circumstances of his case have shaken his
faith in the government.
"I've lost my trust and I've lost everything I have
to the system," Parlak told The Associated Press
this week through a telephone interview from the
Calhoun County jail in Battle Creek, where he has
been held since his July 29 arrest at the FBI office
in St. Joseph.
He said he was treated better during his 18 months
in a Turkish prison than he has been while in U.S.
custody.
"It's worse than a Turkish prison," Parlak said.
"It's sad, but it's true."
An immigration judge in Detroit ruled Aug. 10 that
Parlak was a flight risk and must remain in custody.
He said he has been held in a cell block with other
immigrants.
Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement say Parlak, while living in his native
Turkey, belonged to what the U.S. government now
considers a terrorist group. They say he is
ineligible for permanent residency in the United
States because of his former ties to the Turkish
militant group known as the Kurdistan Workers'
Party, or PKK.
Parlak was convicted in Turkey in 1988 of being
involved in a fire-fight on the Syrian-Turkish
border in which two Turkish soldiers were killed. He
has maintained that he did not kill the soldiers and
that the rifle he was carrying was unloaded at the
time of the skirmish.
Parlak was sentenced to four years and two months in
prison and released about 18 months later. On March
24, a Turkish court notified U.S. officials and
Parlak that he had been re-sentenced for his role in
the 1988 incident, but that it would not be
necessary for him to serve additional prison time.
It was unclear why the Turkish court decided to
re-sentence Parlak 14 years after his release from
prison.
Parlak is charged with being an aggravated felon,
which makes him ineligible for permanent residency
in the United States, and with fraud, for failing to
disclose his past ties to the PKK in his application
for permanent residency.
He came to the United States in 1991 and applied for
political asylum, which was granted to him the
following year. In 1993, he received his "green
card," allowing him to live and work here as a
foreigner.
He opened a restaurant, Cafe Gulistan, in Harbert in
1994. Michele Gazzalo, the mother of Parlak's
7-year-old daughter, Livia, called the situation
"inexplicable."
"People who are not (U.S.) citizens are vulnerable
to this kind of situation," Gazzalo said during a
potluck dinner held Monday evening at the restaurant
to raise awareness of Parlak's case.
Parlak said he is prohibited from touching jail
visitors, including Livia. He said while he was
imprisoned in Turkey, he was allowed to have
physical contact with relatives.
He said he is puzzled about the government's
motivations.
"It's just hard to interpret this," he said. "It's
really sad, after all these years, to again have to
deal with all of this."
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