İbrahim Parlak (born 1962 in

Gaziantep Gaziantep (), previously and still informally called Aintab or Antep (), is a major city and capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region, approximat ...

) is a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

politician who has been accused by the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...

of being a former member and high official of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK).

Early life and education

Parlak grew up into a Kurdish family and had nine siblings. His father was a farmer. During first grade in school, he was punished by the teacher for having spoken

at home. He attended high school in

where he campaigned for the Kurdish rights movement. After having been imprisoned during a rally at the age of sixteen, he migrated to Germany where he lived for seven years.

Europe and the PKK

It was in Europe where Parlak then joined the political wing of the PKK and organized festivals in their support. Aiming to join his family in Turkey, he travelled to Lebanon to get training in a camp of the PKK. After eight months, he led a team of five militants over Syria to Turkey where they were stopped by a border patrol. A skirmish in which three of his colleagues were injured and two Turkish soldiers died ensued and he managed to flee. A few months later he was captured and imprisoned for 1 year and 4 months after which was released. He then left Turkey for the United States where he applied for political asylum in 1991.

United States

He learned English and opened a restaurant in

Harbert Harbert is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bill L. Harbert (1923–2010), American businessman *Chick Harbert (1915–1992), American golfer *Elizabeth Boynton Harbert (1843–1925), American author, lecturer, reformer, philan ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. However, under pressure on the Clinton Administration from Turkey to support American anti-terrorism efforts,

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

retroactively labeled the PKK a "terrorist organization" in 1997. The charges against him were for lying about not being affiliated with a terrorist group on his asylum application. Despite applying 5 years prior when the PKK was not declared a terrorist organization. Post

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

, he was taken into custody by the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

on July 29, 2004. He served 10 months in a Michigan County jail. Parlak subsequently won a writ of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

and was released from prison on June 3, 2005. The court had originally decided to deport him based on the government's case. On July 17, 2018, an immigration judge ruled that Parlak could retain his American residency per the United Nations Convention against Torture.

References

External links

* ''For the relief of Ibrahim Parlak'' legislation in the

115th United States Congress The 115th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the United States Senate, Senate and the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. ...

: ( 114th: ; 113th: )
Free Ibrahim
campaign * Turkish Kurdish people People imprisoned on charges of terrorism Turkish refugees Living people Year of birth missing (living people) United States immigration and naturalization case law Members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party Apoists Turkish Kurdish politicians Kurdish politicians People charged with terrorism Fugitives wanted by Turkey {{Turkey-bio-stub

Early life and education

Europe and the PKK

United States

References

Further reading

External links