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BATTLE CREEK, Mich. --
There's no doubt, says Harbert businessman Ibrahim
Parlak, that the Calhoun County Jail where he's
being held in Battle Creek is better than Turkish
prison, where he once was tortured.
But the owner of Harbert's Cafe Gulistan said his
fight to convince the United States government he's
not a threat to national security is "worse than any
torture in Turkey.''
"I consider this my second-life country, a place
where I found refuge. My community accepts me, as to
who I am,'' he said. "I thought all this was behind
me.''
In an interview Wednesday at the jail, Parlak, a
42-year-old Turkish Kurd who once was associated
with a Kurdish resistance group in Turkey, argued
the reason he has been detained as a possible threat
to national security is based on a misunderstanding.
Contrary to the stance of officials from the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, Parlak claimed he
has been upfront with immigration officials since he
was granted political asylum in 1991.
"When I came here, I told them everything,'' he
said.
He said officials in the United States had full
knowledge of his association with the Kurdistan
Workers' Party, now known as the KONGRA-GEL and
recognized by the United States and the European
Union as a terrorist organization.
And while he acknowledged he was "in the area''
during a 1988 firefight on the Syrian-Turkish border
where two Turkish soldiers were killed, he said he
had nothing to do with their deaths.
"Did I have a gun? Yes, of course, I did. So what?
Everybody had guns,'' he said.
"There, guns are a part of life. People take them to
weddings, family gatherings. That's how they
celebrate.''
When he was sentenced in Turkey on a reduced charge
of aggravated assault, he said he served 16 months
in a Turkish prison. For about a month of that
sentence, he said he was tortured by such means as
confinement in a chamber "filled with water and who
knows what.''
"Half the time, you don't know where you are. Half
the time, you're not awake,'' he said.
After his release, he was granted asylum in the
United States. He eventually settled in Harbert,
where he has owned the Cafe Gulistan on Red Arrow
Highway for 10 years.
He said he believes he was jailed on July 29 mainly
because of a document the Turkish government had
turned over to U.S. authorities four months earlier.
The document was intended merely to notify officials
his sentence in Turkey had been amended, without
requiring more time behind bars, but U.S. officials
view it as evidence of new criminal charges.
Also, he said he apparently is being blamed for
making a false statement on an application form for
a green card. He claimed it was his attorney who
made the mistake, checking "no'' to a query
regarding previous felony convictions, but that
mistake is now being used as evidence against him.
His next court date is Oct. 26. Should he be
deported, he said he fears the Turkish government
will target him and perhaps return him to prison.
Friends and relatives have rallied in his support,
raising $11,000 for his defense and pointing out he
has been an exemplary citizen since his arrival in
the States. Parlak said he's confident an
immigration judge will free him, but that doesn't
make his incarceration any easier.
"I'm angry, shocked, surprised. I don't think I
should be here,'' he said,
He said he particularly misses his 7-year-old
daughter, Livia Gazzolo, whom he has seen only once
since he was jailed.
"Every morning she comes, she jumps right at me,''
he said, recalling his life with Livia in Harbert.
"I squeeze her," he said. "She's my morning orange
juice.''
Parlak had at least one reason to be happy
Wednesday, as he learned another visit with Livia
has been arranged. He only wishes the visit could
take place in a different setting.
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