The Turkish government has begun an unusual campaign aimed at undercutting support for a popular Michigan restaurant owner whose fight against a deportation order has won the backing of legislators and even the frontman of the Chicago-based band Wilco.
Two members of Congress, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials, journalists and Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy’s management have received letters from Turkish officials alleging that Ibrahim Parlak, a Kurdish immigrant who came to the U.S. 25 years ago, shot and killed two Turkish soldiers, escaped prison and dodged U.S. authorities. The Turkish officials are pressing the U.S. to deport Parlak.
The Turkish Consulate of Chicago sent the letters to U.S. Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., last month; both had written Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson supporting Parlak. Tweedy’s management received an email before he played a benefit concert for Parlak in Three Oaks, Mich., last month. A Tribune reporter and the Tribune’s editor also received emails from the Turkish Consulate.
“The facts of Parlak’s crime are gruesome and alarming, particularly given that he has managed to evade the U.S. authorities, open and operate a restaurant in Michigan, and lead a secret life for so long,” states the letter, which is signed by Umut Acar, the Turkish consul general in Chicago.
Parlak and his lawyer, Robert Carpenter, say the allegations are untrue. Carpenter said Parlak was cleared of murder but convicted of the political offense of separatism for his membership in the PKK, an organization considered a terrorist group by officials in Turkey and the U.S.
Parlak has submitted documents that show he did not escape from prison but was simply released.
“They want to finish him off,” Upton said.
Although a reprieve of a deportation order expires later this month, U.S. officials have said Parlak’s deportation is not imminent.
Parlak and his supporters fear he will be tortured if he is sent back to Turkey, and so Parlak is seeking relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. That agreement, which the U.S. has signed, prevents the deportation of a person to a country where they are likely to be tortured.
According to a February court filing from Parlak, police in Turkey kept Parlak in a “cage” for almost a month after his 1988 arrest, and strung him up by the arms, forced him to eat bread smeared with his own feces, shocked his genitals and raped him with a police baton.
Medical evaluations show Parlak still suffers from his injuries and has signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, Carpenter said.
Parlak came to the U.S. in 1991, seeking political asylum. Since 1994, he has run the popular Kurdish restaurant Cafe Gulistan in Harbert, Mich., and has become a beloved member of the community. His troubles began in 2004, when Homeland Security agents arrested Parlak for lying on immigration documents about whether he had served prison time in Turkey and had ties to a terrorist group. That same year, he was given the order of deportation he has continued to fight.
The Turkish government letters said Parlak led a PKK unit from Syria to Turkey in 1988 that shot and killed two Turkish soldiers. After serving 16 months of a reduced six-year sentence for the crime, the letters said, he escaped and entered the U.S. as a fugitive who lied about his identity to U.S. authorities.
“At this time he is a fugitive for violation of his parole of his release. We think the ability of someone with this kind of a background to do what he did in the United States is noteworthy,” said Gunay Evinch, a lawyer representing the Turkish government in Parlak’s case.
Homeland Security said the letter largely corresponds with evidence introduced at a hearing.
To get his deportation order lifted, Parlak must prove that Turkey has become more dangerous and that he likely would be tortured if sent back. Homeland Security cannot comment on ongoing litigation but has claimed life for Kurds in Turkey has improved since Parlak’s case was first litigated.
Experts on Turkey disagree.
David Phillips, a former senior adviser to the State Department who submitted a report in Parlak’s case, called the U.S. government claims about Turkey “a load of crap.” Amnesty International officials have also raised concerns about the plight of Kurds in Turkey, particularly those who have opposed the government.
“Turkey is on a path to full-scale civil war and it seems to be a course of events that the government desires,” said Phillips, now the director of the Peace-building and Human Rights Program at Columbia University. “Turkey is more divided than any time in recent memory.”
Homeland Security called Phillips’ report hyperbolic.
For Parlak, being deported means leaving behind a daughter who is in college, friends and a life in the U.S., his home for 24 years.
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“I spent most of my adult life here in America to build all this,” he said. “The fight is not about me trying to get something. The fight here is that I earned it, and the government is trying to take it away.”
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