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HARBERT, Mich.
(AP) — Every Monday evening, several dozen
people gather at Cafe Gulistan to eat, drink and
discuss what can be done to free Ibrahim Parlak.
The federal government has accused the 42-year-old
Turkish Kurd of having ties to terrorists and wants
him deported.
Parlak, the restaurant's owner, has been held
without bond at the Calhoun County Jail in Battle
Creek since Aug. 10, pending a hearing next month in
Detroit Immigration Court.
Government officials call him a security threat.
Parlak's backers call his situation a travesty.
"They have no grounds to hold him," said Martin
Dzuris, a close friend who, in 1989, defected to the
United States from what was then called
Czechoslovakia. "They overstepped their authority by
holding him in jail."
Greg Palmore, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement office in Detroit, said this
week he is "confident that the government's case
will stand on its own merits."
Parlak's small, inviting restaurant, which offers
Middle Eastern cuisine, sits along the Red Arrow
Highway — the main drag in Harbert, a hamlet in
southwestern Berrien County near the Indiana border.
Film critic Roger Ebert and author the Rev. Andrew
Greeley are said to be regular customers.
One section of the dining area features postings of
newspaper articles about Parlak's plight, alongside
"Free Ibrahim" T-shirts and other merchandise sold
to raise money for his defense team of seven lawyers
and a consultant.
"That's what it takes when you're taking on the
federal government," said Dzuris, of New Buffalo.
He and three of the attorneys met this week with
U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, who has been in touch with
Parlak's family. They asked the Republican from St.
Joseph to urge immigration officials to drop
Parlak's case.
Upton spokesman Sean C. Bonyun said the congressman
would not publicly discuss the meeting. Dzuris said
Wednesday that Upton vowed to continue looking into
it.
Palmore declined to comment specifically about the
efforts to get Parlak released.
Parlak was arrested July 29 at the FBI office in St.
Joseph. He originally was charged with being an
aggravated felon, which would make him ineligible
for permanent residency in the United States, and
fraud, for failing to disclose his past ties to a
Turkish militant group in his application for
permanent residency.
In mid-October, the U.S. government filed three
terrorism-related counts to go along with the
immigration charges.
All five counts are administrative charges, not
criminal charges. Immigration Judge Elizabeth Hacker
has the power only to deport or free Parlak.
The latest counts accuse Parlak of committing or
inciting to commit terrorist activities, soliciting
funds for terrorist activities and providing
material support for terrorist activities. His next
hearing is set for Dec. 7.
The government says Parlak once had ties to the
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a group now known
as KONGRA-GEL. The United States and the European
Union consider the group to be a terrorist
organization.
He also 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.
Dzuris and other supporters, who are part of a group
called Friends of Ibrahim, describe Parlak as a man
who was seeking to get out from under a regime that
brutally treated Kurds like himself.
"I fight for my people," Parlak said during a recent
telephone interview from jail with The Associated
Press. "I didn't hurt anyone. I saved lots of
lives."
A Turkish military court sentenced Parlak to four
years and two months in prison for his role in the
skirmish, then released him about 18 months later.
On March 24, 14 years after his release, the court
notified U.S. officials and Parlak that he had been
re-sentenced for the same crime, but that it would
not be necessary for him to serve the additional
prison time. It's not clear why he was sentenced
again.
He left for 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.
Parlak opened Cafe Gulistan in 1994 and fathered a
child, daughter Livia, now 7 years old, with local
writer Michele Gazzolo.
She said the ordeal has affected Livia's
personality.
"She's gone from being a really happy kid to someone
who's sad all the time," Gazzolo said. "She cries
every day."
Parlak said the hardest part about being jailed is
being prohibited from having any physical contact
with visitors, particularly Livia.
"I haven't been able to hug my daughter since the
day they took me," he said.
Fatma Oeksuez, 23, a college student who lives in
Harbert, said she doesn't understand why any of this
is happening to Parlak, her uncle.
"There is no reason," said Oeksuez, who lived in
Parlak's home for three years. "He is a really
loving person, a great person. He is more American
than anyone else around here."
With Parlak unable to run his own restaurant, he is
relying heavily on other people to keep the business
going. A younger brother, Huseyin Parlak, has spent
many hours at Cafe Gulistan since Ibrahim has been
detained.
"It's a lot of work," a weary Huseyin, 38, said
during a brief break from the kitchen. "I'm coming
in at 6 or 7 (a.m.) and leaving after midnight."
Family friend Christina Worthington said local
residents have offered to do whatever they can for
Ibrahim Parlak because he is a generous, well-liked
and highly respected member of the community.
"It's just unbelievable, the outpouring of love and
support for him, from everyone that he has helped,"
she said.
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