Kurdish resturant owner in USA gets deported to Turkey- HELP

[dyaoko]

Turkey is coming after Kurds in USA, Kurdish resturant owner is being deported to Turkey. Read this share and sign the pettition. Stop the Fashist Pro-ISIS Turkey.

http://kurdinamerica.blogspot.com/2015/ ... -fake.html

https://www.change.org/p/dhs-secretary- ... ef=Default

[Anthea]

Mr Parlak was granted political asylum. A great many Kurds were granted political asylum.

If Mr Parlak's asylum is revoked will this set a legal precedent?

Will other such one-time asylum seekers also lose their previously granted political asylum? This is wrong.

As far as I gather, Mr Parlak has broken no laws during his 25 years in America

[Anthea]

Ibrahim Parlak granted 90-day stay from deportation

Supporters of a Kurdish refugee were rallying at his southwest Michigan restaurant Wednesday evening, once again urging the US government to allow him to stay.

Organizers of the vigil say they thought the evening vigil was going to be one big goodbye since they didn't know if they'd ever see Ibrahim Parlak again.

But the sadness turned to happiness as Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Homeland Security announced it'd hold off on any plans to deport Parlak for 90 days to allow his supporters to file another appeal with the Board of Immigration.

Dozens of well-wishers flooded into Ibrahim Parlak's roadside restaurant on Wednesday evening.

As his deferral expired, Parlak faced potential deportation to Turkey. Instead of a goodbye, people were relieved, lighting candles and sharing messages of love.

“When he's up against it, people drop everything and they show up and say 'we believe in this man’,” Parlak’s brother-in-law Nick Gazzolo said.

“Instead of going into hiding, here we are. We are open and so thank you!” Parlak told supporters.

A hearty cheer went up as on Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Homeland Security granted a 90-day stay which will allow Parlak's supporters time to appeal to the Board of Immigration.

“We think we have an excellent argument. We put it together as quickly as we could in light of the time constraints of not knowing when they were going to knock on this door, or order him to Detroit. And now we have some breathing room to augment it,” attorney Robert Carpenter said.

“Three months. It's around the corner, but still, it's a lot better than being worried, are they going to pick me up tomorrow?” Parlak said.

In the meantime, Parlak says he'll relax and enjoy the holiday with his family and friends without looking over his shoulder.

“It's more important to be fighting for something than against something. And right now, I think thousands of people are fighting for Ibrahim. For freedom, for a friend, for a brother, for a father, and we're just happy to be here tonight,” Parlak’s brother-in-law Paul Gazzolo said.

“We have faith in the courts. We have faith in the justice system. Still, it's not the thing you prefer. I want to be in charge of my life. Not a judge telling me what it should be,” Parlak said.

Dzuris says the stay allows Parlak's supporters time to make the case that he's in mortal danger if he's deported to Turkey.

The Board of Immigration Appeals in Virginia will decide Parlak's fate after the hearing.

Martin Dzuris, one of Parlak’s closest supporters says they’re waiting to find out when the hearing will be scheduled. It may not require oral arguments, simply filing paperwork.

Dzuris says with recent developments in Turkey involving ISIS, suicide bombings and treatment of Kurds, they're confident they can prove Parlak's life would be in danger if deported.

http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Ibra ... 39171.html

Anthea: Sadly many Kurds in Turkey are at risk. Kurds escaping from ISIS and the coalition bombings are threatened and attacked daily. Kurds are also threatened, attacked and killed in their own homeland in the east of Turkey and in Turkish towns and cities, especially where they have businesses.

NO KURD WILL EVER BE SAFE UNTIL KURDISTAN IS FREE

[Anthea]

Do YOU know of anyone else who has had their political asylum revoked?

Are other countries revoking political asylum?

As we all focus on Mr Parlak, we have to think of what his deportation could mean for many other THOUSANDS of KURDS, who have in the past relied on their being granted political asylum for their safety from the barbaric Turkish state

[Anthea]

Stop the wasteful and unnecessary deportation of Ibrahim Parlak!

By the time Ibrahim Parlak arrived in the U.S. in 1991, he had endured warfare, imprisonment, and torture in his homeland of Turkey. He is a Kurd, an ethnic minority that has historically been subjected to discrimination by Turks. When Ibrahim was granted asylum in Chicago, he was so grateful. He sought to build a new life free from persecution, and wanted only to be the best American he could be.

Then 9/11 happened, and Kurds who had been politically active in their homeland came onto the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) radar. Without warning, and without cause, Ibrahim was imprisoned in 2004. But by then, he had the love and respect of his community. Hundreds of supporters fought for, and secured, his release.

He has the backing of Congresspersons, several journalists, and former counsel to the FBI on terrorism. Michigan Senator Carl Levin and Rep. Fred Upton introduced a series of private bills to protect Ibrahim from deportation. But Levin is now retired. And these protections for my gentle and industrious 52-year-old brother-in-law, Ibrahim Parlak, expired on December 23rd. He now has a 90 day extension – until March 21st, 2016. After this date, he might actually be forced from his home and family, to face possible renewed persecution or death in Turkey or an unknown country. I am in shock.

This man is a devoted father to his American daughter (my niece), a small business owner, job creator, taxpayer, and a pillar of his community. Please, help me call on President Obama, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, ICE, Sen. Gary Peters MI, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow MI to take the necessary action in Ibrahim Parlak’s case that will allow him to live in peace and freedom permanently in the United States, his home.

When he first arrived, Ibrahim worked as a busboy. As soon as he could, he started his own restaurant with two knives and three pots, and did all the work himself until he earned enough to hire help. Today, 20 years later, his restaurant is famous and beloved in his Michigan town, and he provides many jobs to the community. His daughter is thriving at college, and he is certainly the best brother-in-law I could ask for.

We appreciate that the task of protecting our country is monumental right now. But discernment is key at such times -- our government must be able to distinguish between someone who poses a real threat to our security, and someone who is a genuine asset to our country. Few people suffer as he did, or make as much of what this country offers. As Ibrahim said, America provided him "with the opportunity to become someone." Here, "if you live by the rules and work hard...dreams can come true."

The clock is ticking! Let’s not take this upstanding man’s dreams away from him. In the name of decency, President Obama, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, ICE, Sen. Gary Peters MI, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow MI we implore you to act decisively on behalf of Ibrahim Parlak, and allow him to continue the good work he does in his family and community here in the U.S.

Link to Article and Petition:

https://www.change.org/p/senator-gary-p ... him-parlak

[Anthea]

RADİKAL - Ünlü oyuncu Ersin Korkut olduğu öne sürülen ve “vatan haini” denilerek havalimanında saldırıya uğrayan kişinin videosu sosyal medyada gündem oldu. Korkut ailesi görüntülerdeki kişinin Ersin Korkut olduğu iddiasını yalanladı. Görüntüdeki saldırıya uğrayan kişinin, Ersin Korkut değil, uzun yıllar Rusya’da yaşayan 56 yaşındaki Selahattin Büyüküsta olduğu öğrenildi.

http://www.radikal.com.tr/hayat/havaala ... i-1496282/

phpBB [video]

[Anthea]

‎Hi Friends - if any of you are Twitter users, please try to share the petition today. We are starting to see some retweets of the link to the petition from people with lots of followers. A few pieces of advice:

1. Be sure to tweet AT a person (for example, a celebrity chef). If you are only tweeting your thoughts or a link and not doing it AT someone, the only viewers are your own followers.

2. Be sure to include the link to the petition.

3. Be sure your tweet is not so long that it would be too long to retweet (a retweet adds on extra characters, and the 140 character limit is still in place).

4. Include at least one of our hashtags: ‪#‎ibrahimparlak‬ or ‪#‎freeibrahimparlak‬. Again, be careful about how long your tweet is.

5. Don't just retweet someone's tweet - send your own tweet, from your account.

6. If you need examples - please see my twitter feed @hkraus1313

THANK YOU ALL!! Let's get a big push today and get lots of signatures!!

[Anthea]

Will U.S. Deport Kurdish Activist Ibrahim Parlak Back to Turkey Where He Was Jailed & Tortured?

We turn now to a case of Michigan resident Ibrahim Parlak, who faces imminent deportation in an asylum case that stretches back more than 20 years. Parlak is a Kurdish man who came to the United States in 1990 fleeing persecution in his native country of Turkey, where he’d been arrested and tortured for his affiliations with the political arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Once Parlak reached the United States, he was granted political asylum. A year later, he was granted permanent residence. But all this changed in the years following 2001, when the FBI began to review old asylum files. In 2004, Parlak was arrested and threatened with deportation. But much to the surprise of the Department of Homeland Security, the community around him in Harbert, Michigan, rose to his defense. People built websites, organized letter-writing campaigns, held vigils and made so much noise that the agency released him. But now, his immigration case has suddenly come up again. The Department of Homeland Security has once again threatened Parlak with deportation and has ordered him to apply for residency to some other country. He fears he’ll be returned to Turkey, where the increasing crackdown on Kurdish communities has killed hundreds and displaced 200,000 from their homes. To talk more about the case, we’re joined in Chicago by Ibrahim Parlak, his daughter Livia, and their lawyer, Rob Carpenter.

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/6/wi ... st_ibrahim

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Livia Gazzolo, the daughter of Ibrahim Parlak, who we’ll be talking about today. That was Livia singing at a vigil for him a few years ago. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn to the case of Michigan resident Ibrahim Parlak, who faces imminent deportation in an asylum case that stretches back close to a quarter of a century.

Ibrahim Parlak is a Kurdish man who came to the United States in 1990 fleeing persecution in his native country, Turkey, where he’d been arrested and tortured for his affiliations with the political arm of the [Kurdistan] Workers’ Party, a Kurdish independence group, better known as the PKK. Once Parlak reached the United States, he was granted political asylum. A year later, he was granted permanent residence.

But all this changed in the years following 2001, when the FBI began to review old asylum files. In the years after Parlak arrived in the U.S., the U.S. government had designated the PKK a terrorist organization, and suddenly, this made Parlak a terrorist, too, although he said he was never a part of the PKK. In 2004, Parlak was arrested and threatened with deportation. But much to the surprise of the Department of Homeland Security, which had designated Parlak a terrorist, the community around him in Harbert, Michigan, rose to his defense. People built websites, organized letter-writing campaigns, held vigils, made so much noise that the agency released him.

But now his immigration case has suddenly come up again. The Department of Homeland Security has once again threatened Ibrahim Parlak with deportation, and has ordered him to apply for residency to some other country. He fears he’ll be returned to Turkey, where the increasing crackdown on Kurdish communities has killed hundreds and displaced 200,000 people from their homes.

To talk more about the case, we go to Chicago. Ibrahim Parlak is with us; his daughter Livia is with us; and their lawyer, Rob Carpenter.

We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Ibrahim Parlak, let’s begin with you. You’ve been here for 25 years. Why is this coming up now?

IBRAHIM PARLAK: Through the whole time, I’ve been trying to become a citizen, and I followed all the procedures and took the exam and passed the exam. Just when I was about to celebrate becoming a citizen, something came up, and they brought up that I had a connection in the past with Kurdish organizations. And I told them, at that time, "Nothing is new, and you should have known that, and all is in the file." And so, since then, it’s just become sort of like this endless nightmare. And after September 11, it’s got more difficult. And it’s been continuing since then. And, you know, America became my second home. It’s my country. That’s where I live. That’s where my family is. That’s where my community is. That’s where my business is. So I’ve been fighting to stay. And—

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me turn to your lawyer, Rob Carpenter. Rob, if you could lay out for us the legal case—what happened, how he was approved by the U.S. government to live here all these years, and then what happened? Talk about the politics of the United States and Turkey, as well, within that.

ROBERT CARPENTER: Sure, I’ll be happy to. So, when Ibrahim arrived to flee the torture that he was subjected to by the Turkish government, he was granted asylum. He presented all of the relevant facts as to his affiliation with the political arm of the PKK, which was not a terrorist organization at that time. And the government willingly approved his asylum and then his permanent residence. Some time later, when he applied for naturalization to become a U.S. citizen, the government revisited that application in light of the PKK having been designated a terrorist organization after the fact, and decided to try to, I believe, widen the breadth of the definition of terrorism and material support of a terrorist organization to encompass a retroactive application. And the courts upheld that reading of the law, as—frankly, as absurd of a principle as it is. And so, you know, after the removal case took place and after his appeals were exhausted, many people on both sides of the aisle politically came to his aid and pushed for him to receive what’s called deferred action, which would allow him to stay even if he had the deportation order. And that’s how he’s remained from 2009 until 2015. The other reason why he’s been able to remain with work authorization in the United States after that fact is because he’s stateless. Turkey revoked his citizenship. So there’s nowhere to send him to.

What’s changed now, as of two weeks ago, is that we received word that the government had, through back channels, acquired travel documents with the government of Turkey to, in fact, deport him to Turkey, even though he’s not a citizen there and has no real legal way of returning there. Now he does. And so, that was a game-changing piece of information. And so, we took a hard look at the file and are certain that he’ll be tortured if he’s returned to Turkey. And in light of current events, I think that it’s indisputable that he’ll be tortured if he’s returned to Turkey. So we filed a motion to reopen the case to have his claim under the Convention Against Torture, which is a U.N. convention the United States is a signatory to, re-examined by the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the underlying case reopened so that that claim for relief can be—so that the Board of Immigration Appeals can take a look at it again.

AMY GOODMAN: Ibrahim Parlak, what happened to you in Turkish custody before? And what do you think would happen if you return to Turkey now?

IBRAHIM PARLAK: In the past, I’ve been many times taken under the police custody, and once held when the military curfew was issued, '78, for almost three months held in the military custody. That's when I was just about 16. And then, the latest was '88. I was captured and put in jail, in it almost a month, for a month, mistreated, tortured. And it's just—you know, it’s not a memory you want to revisit.

If I go back, what’s happened now, it’s sort of—I mean, to accepting even to go back there, for someone like me, have to be suicidal to do that, because it’s—the conditions over there, they are worse than even before. And, you know, you have over five cities now under curfew, hundreds of thousands of people pushed out of their homes. And, I mean, just this morning, when I was looking at the Turkish headlines, I mean, three Kurdish women in Silopi, they got assassinated. All they were doing, just humanitarian work for those people who are under curfew. And, you know, then you have someone like Tahir Elci, who was just trying to protect historical monument in the middle of the city, get assassinated. And you have journalists being taken away; even they won’t release information where they are. And then you have an immigrant, who had been deported back to Turkey from Russia, get beaten up at the airport in front of everybody, being as a traitor. And then you have the Turkish newspapers running headlines, since the Turkish government released information to them, that after 25 years, finally we got him. He’s on his way back.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel, if you were sent back to Turkey, you could be killed?

IBRAHIM PARLAK: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Livia into this conversation, your daughter, Livia Gazzolo. How has this latest threat to your dad being forced back to Turkey affected you and your family?

LIVIA GAZZOLO: It’s been really scary. I guess, when I was little, it was all kind of—I didn’t know much about the story. I knew the rough outline. I knew my dad was innocent, and everybody loved him, and that’s what got me through. But lately I’ve learned more and all of the details, and it’s just all really scary and very real.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, you’re in college. Have you been put on a no-fly list?

LIVIA GAZZOLO: They didn’t say outrightly that I was, but they said that my name—that it was someone else with my name, Livia Gazzolo, who was on the no-fly list, and I was supposedly mistaken to be her.

AMY GOODMAN: You were stopped coming back from London on a school trip, stopped—

LIVIA GAZZOLO: On a school trip, yeah, twice, in the span of two hours. And my bag was completely checked, and I was patted down and had to be escorted onto the plane. And then again, I went to San Francisco and was taken aside—before I turned 18, too, which was a little startling.

AMY GOODMAN: Ibrahim Parlak, do you have support of elected leaders?

IBRAHIM PARLAK: Yes. It’s been—it’s been a long journey. Through this long journey, the situation I’m in or I’m forced to be in, it’s hard to accept or hard to deal with on a daily basis. But one thing is for sure, that having the community and also having elected officials, someone like Senator Carl Levin, who introduced private bill every two years since 2005, and someone like Congressman Upton, who did the same thing, and still working hard to find a solution, and someone like Jan Schakowsky, and trying to do the right thing—

AMY GOODMAN: Before we end, I want to ask Rob Carpenter: Would Ibrahim Parlak being returned to Turkey violate the Convention Against Torture? We just have 15 seconds.

ROBERT CARPENTER: Yeah, I don’t think there’s any question. It would be at odds with the Convention Against Torture, because it, under Article 3, prohibits the refoulment or return of an individual who is, more likely than not, going to be tortured upon his or her return. And I think that we’re well above that standard. We’re approaching a virtual certainty of him being persecuted upon his return.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you all for being with us—we’ll continue to follow your case—Ibrahim Parlak and your daughter, Livia Gazzolo, also your attorney, Rob Carpenter.

[Anthea]

Deporting Kurdish activist back to Turkey would be act of terror

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 U.S. 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 about 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 17 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!" on more than 1,300 stations, including WORT here. She is the co-author, with Denis Moynihan, of "The Silenced Majority," a New York Times best-seller.

http://host.madison.com/ct/opinion/colu ... 6f40b.html

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.

[Anthea]

Ibrahim Parlak - The Full Story

This is a story of the American Dream turned into a nightmare.

Ibrahim Parlak, a Kurd who immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey, is the Southwest Michigan restaurateur who was incarcerated as an alien detainee in the Calhoun County Jail for 10 months. He has committed no crime in America, and was only charged with the crime of "separatism" in Turkey for standing up for the rights of Kurdish people to live in freedom and dignity. For this so-called crime he was tortured for a month in a Turkish jail and imprisoned for 18 months.

After the tragic occurences of September 11, 2001 Ibrahim, who had applied for U.S. citizenship in 1999, had his application denied. This was in November, 2001. In 2004, during a routine visit to the F.B.I. offices in St. Joseph, MI (where government officials had previously attempted to convince him to return to the Mideast as a U.S. agent), Ibrahim was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security and jailed in Calhoun County jail, Battle Creek, MI. An immigration judge ruled him deportable to Turkey, where his life would be in jeopardy.

Ibrahim was granted political asylum in 1992 by the United States Department of Justice, based on a well-founded fear of persecution. In 2004 the government rescinded that protection.

Upon his arrest, Ibrahim's family and friends, understandably outraged, banded together to find ways to get him released from jail and to prepare a legal defense strategy. The Honorable Judge Avern Cohn granted our petition for Habeas Corpus May 20th, 2005 and on June 3rd, 2005 Ibrahim was finally released from jail. Since then he has been fighting deportation through the court system.

This journey through the courts has ended recently with the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to hear his appeal of the split decision handed down by the Sixth Circuit Court.

In May, 2010, Secretary Napolitano of DHS, responding to the urging of Sen. Levin and Rep. Upton to drop the case against Ibrahim, notified Ibrahim's attorneys that DHS will not seek to deport Ibrahim for two years.

Although this may sound like good news, it changes nothing, as the private bills before Congress sponsored by Sen. Levin and Rep. Upton achieve essentially the same result: he cannot be deported while those bills are pending. Ibrahim is still required to report to DHS on a regular basis. He must tell them if he is leaving Michigan and tell them when he returns. If he so much as gets two traffic violations he can be arrested and imprisoned. There is no documentation, other than the email from DHS, of this 'promise' to not deport him for two years and the 'conditions' he must comply with have not been clearly defined nor documented. In short, nothing has changed for him.

For six long years Ibrahim has been dealing with this situation. He is tired, disillusioned, and wonders what happened to the American Dream he was living. He is at the point where he wants this to end - one way or another. Either let him live as an American or give him a passport so he can emigrate and find a country where he can live the life he thought he had here.

For those of us who have stood with him throughout this ordeal it would be a shame if our country would let him go elsewhere, and we would miss him dearly. At the same time we fully empathize with his frustration.

Live up to your promise America! Ibrahim Parlak has been the ideal immigrant. He has brought life and energy and jobs to us. He has broken no laws in almost 20 years living here. He has contributed hugely to make this part of America a better place. He has helped those less fortunate than him. It would be a shame to lose him.

Link to Full Article:

http://freeibrahim.com/

[Anthea]

YOU COULD BE NEXT

If this is happening in America it could happen in Europe

We need to know if anyone else has had their Political Asylum revoked

I can think of many Kurds who deserve to have their asylum revoked - all those who now return to Turkey every year and support the Turkish economy

There are a great many genuine Kurds in the UK and elsewhere - who were victims of torture at the hands of the barbaric Turkish regime

GENUINE REFUGEES DO NOT RETURN TO TURKEY

Ibrahim Parlak was granted Political Asylum and has lived in America for 25 years

He is a genuine hard-working family man - he needs international support

[Anthea]

In light of recent events in France - are Kurds in other countries at risk of having their political asylum revoked ?

If this site worked properly other people would be able to log-on and give us information

HOPEFULLY this forum will work properly SOON

[Anthea]

Our Opinion: A nudge toward a long-term solution

The latest move in the chess match to prevent the deportation of Ibrahim Parlak came a week ago.

That’s when U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, strode into Café Gulistan, Parlak’s restaurant in Harbert, and announced there were two plans on the drawing board to avoid Parlak’s deportation back to Turkey.

Upton told Parlak he had introduced a “private bill” in Congress he hoped would get a hearing in the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. If the bill were to gain approval from the subcommittee, Parlak would be safe from deportation through the end of the current session of Congress.

Secondly, Upton sent a letter urging Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and immigration officials not to hinder a motion asking the U.S. Immigration Review Board to reopen Parlak’s case.

Parlark, a Kurdish immigrant, was granted asylum by the United States in 1992 and has worked hard to make a good life for himself here. His friends and supporters have worked hard over the years in an effort to gain his freedom. But for every step forward to earn Parlak his long-awaited permanent residency, a hitch has occurred that brings uncertainty to the immigrant’s future.

Parlak has been living in limbo since the Department of Homeland Security deemed him a threat shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when he was jailed for allegedly failing to disclose his arrest for separatism in Turkey, where he was tortured and imprisoned. He has managed to stay in the U.S. for more than a decade through a series of deferrals and extensions.

There is absolutely no evidence to indicate that Parlak has been anything other than a hardworking immigrant seeking to make a comfortable place for himself in his adopted homeland. In fact, deporting Parlak back to Turkey may put him in more danger now than ever, given the increasing tensions and hostilities between the Turkish government and the Kurdish community.

Parlak deserves permanent residency in this country.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/op ... 311a3.html

[Anthea]

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[Anthea]

Letters: End unjust persecution of Parlak

Thanks to The Tribune for its continued support of Ibrahim Parlak. He does indeed deserve to be granted his permanent residency status. You are in good company. Besides the loyal support of Rep. Fred Upton, he also has the support of many others. Federal Judge Avern Cohn in Detroit described Ibrahim as a ‘model immigrant’. Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago Law School stated in regards to Ibrahim: “In the name of decency and human rights, it is time to bring this absurd and, indeed unjust campaign of persecution to an end.” And the late film critic, Roger Ebert, a supporter of Ibrahim until the time of his death, writes of Ibrahim’s offer to come to his home and cook for him while he was recovering from his radiation treatments. Our system of justice is not perfect, but it is unfathomable that such an injustice can continue for so long.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/op ... 0d899.html