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Expert on Kurdish issues says answer on Ibrahim
Parlak isn't clear-cut.
How can one man's terrorist be another man's freedom
fighter?
Kurdish interim Iraqi president Jalal Talabani
helped to bring about an end to the Saddam-era in
Iraq. "He was an enemy of Saddam Hussein, so his
activities are considered to be good," says Michael
Gunter Sr., professor of political science at
Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tenn.
Gunter sees the irony in the "good Kurd/bad Kurd"
paradox of two Middle Eastern freedom fighters:
Talabani, and Ibrahim Parlak, an emigrant from
Turkish Kurdistan.
Parlak has been held at the Calhoun County
Correctional Center in Battle Creek without bond
since July.
In October, the U.S. government added three
terrorism counts to immigration charges previously
leveled against him.
Among the counts: soliciting funds for terrorist
activities; providing material support for terrorist
activities; and inciting to commit, or committing
terrorist activities while he was living in Turkey
and Western Europe.
Parlak served time in a Turkish jail for the crime
of separatism; a crime related to a skirmish at the
Syrian-Turkish border where two Turkish soldiers
where killed.
He denies any role in the killings.
Parlak never engaged in conflicts against
noncombatants or civilians, according to his
longtime friend, Martin Dzuris, of New Buffalo.
"He always advocated nonviolent change. He was
unfortunate to be present at the firefight at the
Syrian-Turkish border. But Ibrahim did not engage in
gunfire there," Dzuris said.
The Harbert businessman was politically active in
the Kurdish group, Eniya Rizagariya Netewa Kurdistan
in the 1980s.
Accused of terrorism-related crimes, Parlak is
viewed in a negative light by the U.S. government,
Gunter said, while Talabani is not.
Gunter, who testified on Parlak's behalf in December
during a deportation hearing, was a Senior Fulbright
Lecturer in Ankara, Turkey in 1978. He has studied
Kurdish cultures in the Middle East for decades.
"I know Talabani personally," Gunter said. "For
years, he fought against the Iraqi government. He
was a guerrilla leader, who fought and killed Iraqi
soldiers."
In addition, in October 1991, PKK (Kurdish Workers'
Party) soldiers surrendered to Talabini; however,
the Kurdish leader then assisted them by providing a
"safe house" to hide out from the Turkish military,
the professor said.
"He set them up at the back of the Kandil Mountains,
deep in Iraqi Kurdistan on the border of Iran,"
Gunter said.
Nonetheless, Talabani will be granted diplomatic
immunity in this country -- he won't be arrested,
held in detention without bond and deported in
accordance with terrorism immigration statues. In
reality, the Iraqi leader could even be invited to
the White House, Dzuris commented.
There are other "friend vs. foe" or "diplomat vs.
simple immigrant" examples to cite as well, Gunter
suggested.
"Look at Nelson Mandela. While president of South
Africa, he had diplomatic immunity in the United
States. He was clearly someone who was militant
against the South African government, and he
attacked both military and civilian targets."
But the U.S. government allows Mandela to enter into
the United States without fear of incarceration or
deportation, even though he is no longer the
president of South Africa.
"It needs to be understood, that current terrorism
laws don't make a distinction between engaging armed
forces, or civilians and noncombatants, in
armed-conflicts. Engaging in an armed-conflict, at
any time, anywhere, is considered to be a terrorist
activity by DHS," Dzuris explained.
If so, then we have to consider French freedom
fighters; the Afghan Mujahedin fighting the Soviets;
and even our American forefathers fighting the
British; as terrorists engaging in terrorist
activities, Dzuris said.
"Does the (immigration) law say that you can deport
someone, based on their conduct before they came to
the United States?" asked Jay Marhoefer, of the
Chicago law firm of Latham & Watkins. He's one of
several attorneys representing Parlak in a legal
struggle to gain freedom.
The proverbial jury is still out on that particular
question.
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