A PLACE OF COMFORT AND SAFETY

"The United States of America is far removed from many troubles of the world, and has historically been so, due to its geographic location. We all know that the sense of isolation which the US enjoyed, and which some factions within the US have actively encouraged ever since George Washington remarked on the dangers of "foreign entanglements" in his Farewell Address to the nation in 1796, ended tragically on September 11, 2001.

As the events of September 11 were a wake-up call to the American people on a national scale, so too, there has been a wake-up call to a much smaller group of Americans, the citizens of Harbert, Michigan. But their wake-up call did not come violently, nor did it unjustly steal the lives of the citizens. These Americans have been awakened gently, by a man who sought asylum from Turkish brutality against Kurds. His story is an important one because it brings the reality of the Kurdish situation to America, makes it tangible, gives it a human face and a name.

Ibrahim Parlak arrived in the United States in 1991. He was twenty-eight years old, but those twenty-eight years were already filled with more experiences than many can claim after having lived twice as long. As the New York Times describes his arrival:"
Rasti