Ibrahim Parlak with his daughter, Livia.
I will attempt to give an accurate and informative explanation for the picture above, but there is still much that I probably do not know about. I will begin with this disclaimer, and leave the reader to sort out what follows.
The man pictured here is Ibrahim Parlak, resident of 12 years of the small, southwest Michigan coastal town of Harbert. The commonality I have with this man is that this is also my hometown, shared with perhaps a few other hardy souls. Other similarities include the fact that he was in the foodservice business in this community, as was my family throughout my childhood and up to my departure for college. Ibrahim owned the small restaurant Cafe Gulistan, and frequented the bakery my parents owned on a nearly daily basis. Though I was never on personal terms with him, my mother was, and the two would talk of business over the speckled green countertops in our establishment. Some of our employees were also his, serving Mediterranean cuisine at his restaurant. Ibrahim is Turkish, or to be more precise, a Turkish Kurd, and so his food quickly attracted somewhat of a cult following. In an area where probably upwards of 70% of businesses fail in the first year due to improper planning conflicting with seasonality or unsustainability, Gulistan remained. It was known as a great restaurant, run by a good man.
This is where my personal reflection must fade into documented fact, in a situation that is quickly rising to national newscoverage. Last night, Nightline focused on Mr. Parlak's story for about a half an hour, documenting his struggle in Turkey, where his trouble seemingly all begins. From what I have learned through media and the website friends have set up to support him, I feel like there has to be something that I don't know about Mr. Parlak. Either that, or this is a man who has been sorely wronged.
Evidently, Kurds aren't very popular in Turkey. In fact, if they refuse to assimilate- which means if they want to speak to each other in their own language or preserve any semblance of a culture apart from those around them, they are arrested for charges that either sound legitimate but really aren't, like insurgency, or charges that are made up all together, like murder. Mr. Parlak was imprisoned for both, the first of what he admits to if under their definition, and the latter he vehemently denies. You see, Mr. Parlak didn't want to be a doormat his whole life. He became affiliated with several Kurdish activist groups, and while he didn't see violence as an answer to anything, carried a firearm with him at all times as a weapon solely of self defense. While not many folks in the Bible belt do this, they also are infrequently arrested on trumped up charges, jailed and tortured until "confessions" of such charges are obtained. The carrying of a gun becomes somewhat more logical given these conditions.
After serving 16 months of jail time for involvement in the deaths of two border guards, Mr. Parlak was released. He admits to being in the area at the time, but insists he did not kill them. There is no factual evidence ever recorded directly linking him to the murders. Mr. Parlak was in the border area because he was being smuggled in to distribute pro-Kurdish literature into Turkey from Lebanon, where it could be much more easily printed and obtained. He insists this very activity was promoting resistance in the way he agreed with- through non-violence only.
After his release, Mr. Parlak fled the country using a false passport. Considering this was virtually the only way he could leave the country without possibly having to actually kill a border guard this time, it was a logical step. He came to the United States, and applied for political asylum, which was granted. Evidently, at this point in time, the United States government had no problem believing everything Mr. Parlak had to say, which included various documents from the Turkish government detailing his activities there, and a copy of a Turkish newspaper reporting the story of the deaths of the border guards and his alleged involvement.
Here, however, in this seeming moment of innocence where the freedom fighter is welcomed into the promised land, further issues arise that will come back to haunt Mr. Parlak and cause a barrage of legal snafus upon his application for citizenship.
Mr. Parlak did not speak English at the time of his arrival. He incorrectly marked several boxes on his application for residency and asylum, which seem to me to be honest mistakes as they were clearly in conflict with all of the other information he provided. Marking the "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" box "no," Mr. Parlak informed Nightline that he believed the question was in reference to his time spent in the United States. [Sidenote- Mr. Parlak has still never been convicted, or charged with a crime in the US; he has never even been arrested for a minor infringement of the law.] Also, he was forthcoming about his criminal charges in Turkey, so the checked box would be a silly attempt at best to try to deny his history.
Fast forwarding now to July 29, 2004 when the Department of Homeland Security calls on our friend Ibrahim to come down to the station. In the meantime, he had worked his way up in the jobforce to become a small business owner, fathered seven-year-old Livia, and befriended many members of the local and seasonal communities (including film critic Roger Ebert, who has spoken out on Mr. Parlak's behalf). Yesterday, the 29th of December, the Immigration Judge ruled against him on all counts. It seems that all of the reasons Mr. Parlak originally applied for and was granted asylum are all of the reasons he is now a terrorist and must be deported immediately. Several of the groups he was involved with now have terrorist ties, but were not classified as such until 1997, five years after he had emigrated from his homeland. As many who know about such things better than I could tell you, these groups frequently switch alliances with each other and tactics in their pursuit of rights for their people, who continue to be a much-discriminated against racial minority in their homeland of Turkey.
However, just because the timeline doesn't match up very well is no reason he can't be arrested and returned to the arms which assuredly will not be extended toward him lovingly. This detainment, now going on six months, is perfectly legal, thanks to a rather recent little document known as the Patriot Act. It legally gives our government the right to detain anyone with ties or suspected ties to terrorist organizations, and deport them, no matter how long ago the incident or how the organization may have changed in the meantime. According to one member of Mr. Parlak's diverse and bipartisan defense team, this would mean that Nelson Mandela would be turned away from the United States, if the Patriot Act was utilized when he tried to gain access to our country.
I remember not so long ago when Yusuf Islam, also known as Cat Stevens in the 1970's folk/rock scene, was denied admittance to the United States for having financial ties to Muslim charities that were also linked to Muslim terrorism. Now, I readily admit to having a crush on Cat... Yusuf? in the late 80's, probably at the ripe age of seven or eight years old, so this may make me a bit biased. But what was this man going to do to us, that would threaten our national security to the point that his plane was diverted to Canada? Wing copies of Buddha and the Chocolate Box at our heads like so many vinyl throwing stars? I for one would take the risk. There would always be the chance I could catch it, and even if I didn't, what a scar story to tell to the grandkids.
My main argument here, if you can wade through to find it, is that beyond Mr. Parlak and Mr. Islam, there is a deeper problem. We have given ourselves ultimate power, and not only do we like having it, we think we deserve it. Our national security is much more important than having the rights of a foreigner trampled. We are much more important than Ibrahim, and Cat. Probably more important than the both of them put together. I start feeling like an SS man... er, woman... before I know it. I'm not saying were Nazis, but we could turn into something just as bad or worse if nothing is in place to check our unslakable thirst for ultimate power over everyone. If you want to know my theory, it is that 9/11 made us scared, which made us angry. How dare anyone scare us! Don't they know how important we are? Turning the channels today from a count of 118,000 dead and promises of $35 million in support to talk of pro ball players who earn $64 million dollars a year made my stomach churn. We are so damn important. We shouldn't have to feel badly about it, because it is true.
Perhaps in a couple of years, when mirrors start talking and I have nightmares of rat-filled cages strapped to my face, this post will come back to haunt me. I say, bring it on. Perhaps in that moment I will be the new face of terror- the face that is willing to look at terror and stare it down, so that I know what it is. So that I know what it isn't. So that I'm not confused and deny help to those who need it most, whether they live next door to me or around the world.
visit www.cafegulistan.com for up-to-the minute info on Mr. Parlak's case and current appeals.
