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HARBERT -- It may
be a case of arguing to the extreme.
Michael Gunter Sr., professor of political science
at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tenn.,
is convinced that jailed Kurdish immigrant Ibrahim
Parlak is a "poster case" being used to convince
Turkey that the United States is winning the battle
against terrorism in court.
Has the argument gone too far, though?
"I believe," Gunter said, "that one problem is the
adversary (court) system is being misused in this
case, by arguing to the extreme."
That is an analysis that the professor offered in
explanation of the Department of Homeland Security's
assertion that Parlak is a "complete terrorist
package."
In addition, a Homeland Security official from the
Detroit field office, Robin Baker, defined Parlak,
an immigrant restaurant owner who resides in Harbert,
as a murderer in September.
"Turkey has never accused him of murder. This word,
'murder' is overkill," Gunter said.
The professor was shocked by Immigration Judge
Elizabeth Hacker's Dec. 29 ruling that seven counts
against Parlak were proven in court.
"I was surprised," said Gunter, an expert witness
who testified in Parlak's behalf Dec. 7, during a
deportation hearing in Detroit.
"I thought Hacker was listening favorably to the
case. I can't help but think that she came up with a
decision because the U.S. government wanted to
please Turkey," he said.
During the deportation hearing, Mark Jebson, an
attorney for the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, argued that Parlak was a complete
terrorist package, to a "ludicrous point," Gunter
said Monday in a telephone interview.
"Parlak was unfortunate to become a punching bag for
the post-9/11 situation," Gunter said. "He's not a
terrorist, that's obvious. We are wasting our time
and money on him. Turkey is not really interested in
him. The U.S. is sacrificing him to make the Turks
happy."
As a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in Ankara, Turkey, in
1978, Gunter has studied the Kurdish struggle for
freedom. He's written articles and books on the
subject, one of the most recent being "The Kurds and
the Future of Turkey."
He believes the U.S. government is using Parlak to
pacify Turkey, because the Turks have requested that
the United States pursue eliminating the PKK
(Kurdish Workers' Party) in northern Iraq.
From political perspectives -- both left and right
-- Gunter criticizes the U.S. government's decision
to pursue Parlak's case, and hold him without bond
in the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle
Creek.
"On the left, it's an infringement of his civil
liberties," he said. "On the right, it's not an
intelligent pursuit of national security."
Parlak was granted asylum to the United States in
1992. At that time, he disclosed his Turkish
"criminal history" in an asylum application. He also
indicated he was tortured as a prisoner there.
In October 1988, he was taken to a police station in
Maras, Turkey, where he was held for 30 days,
tortured, beaten, and at one point, was ordered to
death by hanging.
His application for protection under the Convention
Against Torture has also been denied, according to
Martin Dzuris of New Buffalo, a long-time friend of
Parlak.
In his request for asylum in the United States,
Parlak indicated he was a member of Eniya Rizagariya
Netewa Kurdistan (ERNK), associated with the PKK.
The PKK, now known as KONGRA GEL, was defined as a
terrorist group by the U.S. government in 1997.
Parlak admittedly attended a PKK training camp in
Lebanon and entered Syria with an armed group in
1988.
The owner of the Cafe Gulistan in Harbert is accused
by the U.S. government of not disclosing details of
his separatist activities on his asylum application
and allegedly omitting his conviction for separatism
on other immigration forms.
He remains incarcerated while his case is appealed
by a team of attorneys.
Gunter said since World War I, Turkish Kurds lost
numerous civil rights because of Turkey's ideals of
nationalism and authoritarian traditions. That
tradition is based on a belief that all Muslims must
be brothers, he said.
Among the loss of rights was freedom of speech,
radio and press, and exercising Kurdish cultural
heritage.
"They could not speak the Kurdish language. They
could not name their children Kurdish names," Gunter
said. "Many Kurdish villages were destroyed in
southeastern Turkey."
In southwest Michigan, Parlak's supporters are
planning more fund-raisers in his behalf.
Dzuris said that in retrospect, he was not shocked
by Hacker's recent ruling in the case. "I am not
surprised that we lost the case in an immigration
court. It's under the authority of the attorney
general's office. It's not an independent forum," he
said.
The case must next go to the Board of Immigration
Appeals, before it can be heard in the 6th Circuit
Court of Appeals.
"We are spending $135 of the taxpayers' money to
detain Ibrahim every day," Dzuris said. "That's a
lot of resources being used to hold someone who is
not a threat to the United States. So, who aren't we
going after? Why can't he be released on bond? Is
there money to be made by corporations to retain
immigrants?"
For example, Dzuris said, Correctional Billing
Services, a business connecting detainees to their
families via telephone at the Calhoun County
Correctional Center, is charging $1 per minute for
Parlak to talk to his friends and family. "Many
probably can't afford to do this," he added.
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