An Act of Terror: Deporting a Kurdish Activist Back to Turkey
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/an_act_of_terror_deporting_a_kurdish_act
ivist_back_to_turkey_20160106/
Posted on Jan 6, 2016
By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
Ibrahim Parlak, a Kurdish immigrant from Turkey, center, toasted his
family, friends and supporters as they celebrated his release from jail in
2005. (Shawano Cleary / AP )
In the quaint tourist town of Harbert, Michigan sits an unassuming
restaurant that has been owned and operated by a man who is considered a
pillar of his community. Cafe Gulistan is owned by Ibrahim Parlak. He is, by
almost all appearances, a classic example of the immigrant success story.
There is just one problem: The U.S. government is trying to deport him to
Turkey, where he has a well-founded fear of imprisonment, torture and
possibly death. After a quarter of a century here in the United States, he
now has about 75 days left to fight deportation.
Parlak is Kurdish, born in the region of Turkey called Anatolia, in 1962.
His childhood was marred by increasing government repression of Turkey's
Kurdish ethnic minority. Turkey banned the Kurdish language, Kurdish
cultural expression, and attempted to forcibly assimilate the Kurdish people
to destroy their heritage. Resistance to that assimilation included protests
and grass-roots organizing, but also, by the 1980s, armed resistance from
the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. In the late 1970s, Parlak, as a
teenager, was jailed for three months for engaging in peaceful protests. He
then moved to Germany to avoid further repression from the Turkish
government. He remained active in the movement for Kurdish autonomy, hosting
cultural events and raising funds for the political, nonmilitary wing of the
PKK, known as the National Front for the Liberation of Kurdistan. After
seven years in Germany, Parlak decided he could better support the Kurdish
cause back home.
He decided to cross back into his Kurdish homeland, he said, to "[g]o back
to people, go to my family, go back where I [was] born and where I grow up,
just reunite with my own." Turkey had revoked his passport, so he decided to
sneak into the Kurdish region of Turkey directly from Syria. As the group he
was with was crossing the border, they were fired on. In the ensuing
firefight, two Turkish soldiers were killed. Months later, he was arrested
by Turkish authorities and charged with "separatism," although he was never
charged with killing the two soldiers. Turkish authorities confirm that he
did not shoot that night.
"I was captured and put in jail, for a month, mistreated, tortured. And it's
just-you know, it's not a memory you want to revisit," Ibrahim Parlak told
us on the "Democracy Now!" news hour. It visibly pains him to recall the
experience. A description that appears in a federal appeals court filing
here in the U.S. from 2007 is chilling: "the Turkish gendarme shocked him
with electrodes, beat his genitalia, hung him by the arms, blindfolded him
and deprived him of sleep, food, water and clothing, and anally raped him
with a truncheon over the course of almost a month." Ultimately, he was
imprisoned for close to a year and a half.
Parlak eventually fled to the United States, where he received asylum and
began the long process of building a life. He received his green card, and
in 1999 applied for citizenship. By this time, the PKK had been designated a
terrorist organization by the US State Department, so the mention of the
group in his file delayed his application. After Sept. 11, 2001, the process
for gaining citizenship transformed. Eager bureaucrats from the newly minted
Department of Homeland Security were looking for terrorists in mosques,
parks, schools, you name it. Ibrahim Parlak fit their bill just fine, and
the American dream he had built came crashing down.
He was arrested and jailed while awaiting deportation. Community support for
Parlak was incredible. A former FBI counterterrorism lawyer volunteered to
represent him. People he had worked with for years and even local police
testified to his character. After 10 months in a county jail, a federal
judge ordered his release, stating, "He has been a model immigrant. ... He
is not a threat to anyone nor a risk of flight. He has strong ties to the
community."
Since then, he has been on "deferred action" for deportation, meaning he can
be grabbed at any time and deported to Turkey. He has support from
Republican Congressman Fred Upton, and had the support of Sen. Carl Levin,
Democrat of Michigan, until Levin retired last year. His supporters are
asking Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, both Democrats, to file a bill
protecting Parlak, but to date, neither has. The dean of the University of
Chicago Law School has asked for President Barack Obama to pardon Parlak.
Turkey, meanwhile, has escalated its military assault on the Kurds, and has
imposed harsh curfews and intense censorship of any dissent. Many are
concerned of the grave danger that Parlak faces if he is deported to Turkey.
His lawyer, Rob Carpenter, told us that Parlak has received "private
Facebook threats of modes of torture that were never made public before,
indicating it must be one of several guards who tortured him during those
seventeen months before he fled to the United States."
Ibrahim Parlak is back at his Cafe Gulistan, his future uncertain. The U.S.
government contends he is a terrorist, although he has never been found
guilty of committing a violent act. Deporting him, however, would be an act
of terror in itself.
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio
news hour airing on more than 1,300 stations. She is the co-author, with
Denis Moynihan, of "The Silenced Majority," a New York Times best-seller.
(c) 2015 Amy Goodman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
An Act of Terror: Deporting a Kurdish Activist Back to Turkey
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/an_act_of_terror_deporting_a_kurdish_act
ivist_back_to_turkey_20160106/
Posted on Jan 6, 2016
By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
Ibrahim Parlak, a Kurdish immigrant from Turkey, center, toasted his family,
friends and supporters as they celebrated his release from jail in 2005.
(Shawano Cleary / AP )
In the quaint tourist town of Harbert, Michigan sits an unassuming
restaurant that has been owned and operated by a man who is considered a
pillar of his community. Cafe Gulistan is owned by Ibrahim Parlak. He is, by
almost all appearances, a classic example of the immigrant success story.
There is just one problem: The U.S. government is trying to deport him to
Turkey, where he has a well-founded fear of imprisonment, torture and
possibly death. After a quarter of a century here in the United States, he
now has about 75 days left to fight deportation.
Parlak is Kurdish, born in the region of Turkey called Anatolia, in 1962.
His childhood was marred by increasing government repression of Turkey's
Kurdish ethnic minority. Turkey banned the Kurdish language, Kurdish
cultural expression, and attempted to forcibly assimilate the Kurdish people
to destroy their heritage. Resistance to that assimilation included protests
and grass-roots organizing, but also, by the 1980s, armed resistance from
the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. In the late 1970s, Parlak, as a
teenager, was jailed for three months for engaging in peaceful protests. He
then moved to Germany to avoid further repression from the Turkish
government. He remained active in the movement for Kurdish autonomy, hosting
cultural events and raising funds for the political, nonmilitary wing of the
PKK, known as the National Front for the Liberation of Kurdistan. After
seven years in Germany, Parlak decided he could better support the Kurdish
cause back home.
He decided to cross back into his Kurdish homeland, he said, to "[g]o back
to people, go to my family, go back where I [was] born and where I grow up,
just reunite with my own." Turkey had revoked his passport, so he decided to
sneak into the Kurdish region of Turkey directly from Syria. As the group he
was with was crossing the border, they were fired on. In the ensuing
firefight, two Turkish soldiers were killed. Months later, he was arrested
by Turkish authorities and charged with "separatism," although he was never
charged with killing the two soldiers. Turkish authorities confirm that he
did not shoot that night.
"I was captured and put in jail, for a month, mistreated, tortured. And it's
just-you know, it's not a memory you want to revisit," Ibrahim Parlak told
us on the "Democracy Now!" news hour. It visibly pains him to recall the
experience. A description that appears in a federal appeals court filing
here in the U.S. from 2007 is chilling: "the Turkish gendarme shocked him
with electrodes, beat his genitalia, hung him by the arms, blindfolded him
and deprived him of sleep, food, water and clothing, and anally raped him
with a truncheon over the course of almost a month." Ultimately, he was
imprisoned for close to a year and a half.
Parlak eventually fled to the United States, where he received asylum and
began the long process of building a life. He received his green card, and
in 1999 applied for citizenship. By this time, the PKK had been designated a
terrorist organization by the US State Department, so the mention of the
group in his file delayed his application. After Sept. 11, 2001, the process
for gaining citizenship transformed. Eager bureaucrats from the newly minted
Department of Homeland Security were looking for terrorists in mosques,
parks, schools, you name it. Ibrahim Parlak fit their bill just fine, and
the American dream he had built came crashing down.
He was arrested and jailed while awaiting deportation. Community support for
Parlak was incredible. A former FBI counterterrorism lawyer volunteered to
represent him. People he had worked with for years and even local police
testified to his character. After 10 months in a county jail, a federal
judge ordered his release, stating, "He has been a model immigrant. ... He
is not a threat to anyone nor a risk of flight. He has strong ties to the
community."
Since then, he has been on "deferred action" for deportation, meaning he can
be grabbed at any time and deported to Turkey. He has support from
Republican Congressman Fred Upton, and had the support of Sen. Carl Levin,
Democrat of Michigan, until Levin retired last year. His supporters are
asking Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, both Democrats, to file a bill
protecting Parlak, but to date, neither has. The dean of the University of
Chicago Law School has asked for President Barack Obama to pardon Parlak.
Turkey, meanwhile, has escalated its military assault on the Kurds, and has
imposed harsh curfews and intense censorship of any dissent. Many are
concerned of the grave danger that Parlak faces if he is deported to Turkey.
His lawyer, Rob Carpenter, told us that Parlak has received "private
Facebook threats of modes of torture that were never made public before,
indicating it must be one of several guards who tortured him during those
seventeen months before he fled to the United States."
Ibrahim Parlak is back at his Cafe Gulistan, his future uncertain. The U.S.
government contends he is a terrorist, although he has never been found
guilty of committing a violent act. Deporting him, however, would be an act
of terror in itself.
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio
news hour airing on more than 1,300 stations. She is the co-author, with
Denis Moynihan, of "The Silenced Majority," a New York Times best-seller.
(c) 2015 Amy Goodman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
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