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HARBERT
-- To his friends, Ibrahim Parlak is a pacifist
restaurateur, a donor of cash and food to area arts
causes, the father of a 7-year-old girl.
And they can't figure out why he has been deemed a
threat to national security. Parlak has been
detained by federal agents on behalf of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security and locked up in the
Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek. He faces a
court hearing Tuesday.
"This is totally wrong. He is not a threat to
anyone," said his friend Martin Dzuris of New
Buffalo.
Parlak owns the Cafe Gulistan in Harbert, a business
he started in the 1990s after the U.S. government
granted the Turkish Kurd political asylum. Dzuris
said he suspects a combination of Parlak's past
political activism and mistakes and
misunderstandings by U.S. immigration officials have
cost him his freedom.
To win it back, Dzuris and friends have been
appealing for support. A petition drive is underway
to demand that federal officials maintain due
process in his case.
Furthermore, friends and business acquaintances are
writing letters to immigration officials vouching
for his character.
"We got police officers who are going to testify for
him," Dzuris said in a phone interview Sunday night.
"We got (film critic) Roger Ebert writing a
character letter. (Author and Catholic priest)
Andrew Greeley is helping."
Greeley and Ebert have summer homes in southwestern
Berrien County.
Dzuris said Parlak surrendered at the St. Joseph FBI
office July 29, one day after agents requested he do
so. A bond hearing has been set for Tuesday in U.S.
District Court in Detroit.
Federal officials involved in Parlak's case were not
available for comment Sunday night or this morning
to discuss the exact charges against Parlak.
Dzuris said Parlak's story begins in the mid '80s
and is rooted in Kurdish efforts to secure their
rights and or establish their own country.
There are about 30 million Kurds in a mountainous
region spreading into Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
The Iraqi Kurds are probably the best known in
America because of their U.S. support and brutal
oppression by since-deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.
In Turkey, the U.S.-friendly government has tried to
squash Kurdish independence efforts and wipe out
Kurdish culture and language, Dzuris said.
Dzuris said Parlak was part of the independence
movement and was tortured for his efforts. He fled
Turkey for Europe where he wrote for a Kurdish
newspaper and taught European Kurds about their
heritage.
In 1989, he tried to sneak back into Turkey through
Syria. Dzuris said a shoot-out broke out between
Parlak's party and border guards. Two guards died
and Parlak - who was not a shooter - was arrested.
After about 18 months in a Turkish prison awaiting
trial, Parlak was convicted and sentenced to 50
months more with four-fifths suspended.
He sought political asylum in the United States in
1991, which was granted in 1992.
In 1994, he gained resident status, the "green
card," Dzuris said.
In 1998, he began the process of securing U.S.
citizenship. But a discrepancy in the resident
status application tripped up the process and may
have led to last month's arrest, Dzuris said.
After a question about criminal record, Parlak's
lawyer checked the box marked "no," Dzuris said. He
said the lawyer and Parlak presumed the question
referred to his U.S. stay. The Turkish record had
been reported in the asylum request.
Since then, Parlak has been trying to get the
misunderstanding cleared up in federal court, Dzuris
said. Complicating
matters, a Turkish appeals court this year agreed
with the prosecutor that Parlak's sentence was too
light, Dzuris said. It should have been six years
with four-fifths suspended.
Dzuris said the Turkish government, for its own
records, wanted to notify Parlak of the ruling.
However, Dzuris said, Turkey had no desire to
extradite Parlak, who had already been stripped of
his Turkish citizenship.
U.S. Homeland Security officials were also notified,
Dzuris said, and they may have been aroused by
Turkish allegations linking Parlak to the armed
Kurdish independence group PKK.
"Ibrahim had dealings with them but never became a
member because he disagreed with their tactics,"
Dzuris said.
Dzuris said Parlak's last PKK contacts were in 1988,
nine years before the U.S. State Department declared
it a terrorist organization.
Source:
heraldpalladium.com
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