Labeled terrorists in their homeland, hundreds of Turks are seeking asylum in New Jersey
Hannan AdelyOn the run in Turkey, Yasin Atik changed apartments four times, pulled his children out of school and avoided parks and hospitals where officers might ask for his identification. In his government's eyes, he was a supporter of terrorists.
In July of last year, Atik escaped with his wife and four children on a small wooden boat across the Meric River, crossing into Greece and then trekking for six hours to safety.
“I thought of myself behind bars, my wife behind bars, the kids by themselves,” said Atik, speaking at the Clifton apartment he shares with two roommates. All recently fled Turkey. “It was unthinkable. So for two years, we kept moving.”
Now, the former philosophy teacher spends his days fixing cellphones and learning English in suburban North Jersey, waiting to reunite with the rest of his family, who have remained in Greece but will soon come to the United States.
Atik is one of thousands of Turks who have fled a government crackdown targeting followers of Hizmet, the social movement inspired by Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Many have come to northern New Jersey, home to a large Turkish-American community that is less than a hundred miles from where Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania's Poconos region since 1999.
Among them are teachers, lawyers and journalists who have been labeled terrorists or enemies of the state in a purge under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who blames Gulen for a failed coup attempt in 2016. In the United States, they wait and hope for democratic reforms in Turkey and watch worriedly as President Donald Trump builds an uneasy relationship with Erdogan, clearing a path for him to target Kurds in northern Syria and inviting him to the White House next month.
“When you criticize the government, it’s unfortunately very difficult to live in Turkey,” said Murat Kaval, president of Advocates of Silenced Turkey, a global human rights advocacy group based in Wayne. “You’re labeled a terrorist.”
Erdogan has faced international condemnation this week after launching a military campaign against Kurdish forces in northern Syria. The Trump administration has threatened new economic sanctions, although the president on Tuesday also said the fight between Turkey and America's former Kurdish allies "has nothing to do with us."
Kaval estimates that about 500 Turks have come to New Jersey since the coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Erdogan blamed Gulen for masterminding the coup, although the influential preacher has denied involvement. Turkey has since detained thousands with suspected ties to Hizmet, which it calls the Fethullah Terrorist Organization, as well as citizens who have challenged the government's increasingly authoritarian rule.
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Organizations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department have documented claims of arbitrary arrest, torture and severe limits on the free press and protesters.
A State Department report last year noted findings by human rights groups that many of those arrested "had no substantial link to terrorism and were detained to silence critical voices or weaken political opposition."
Turkish embassy officials did not respond to requests for comment about alleged human rights abuses. Erdogan has pushed the U.S. to extradite Gulen and shut down a network of charter schools around the nation founded by individuals linked to Hizmet. So far, the administration has resisted.
‘Could not yell or scream’
Atik, 39, taught high school philosophy and psychology and volunteered for an organization that raised scholarship money for Hizmet schools.
Hizmet — "service" in Turkish — has millions of followers around the world who have built businesses, media outlets and educational institutions. To supporters, Gulen is an enlightened leader who champions education, interfaith dialogue and tolerance. To critics, he is an enemy whose adherents tried to take over the Turkish state by infiltrating the military, police and judiciary.
When Atik learned there were indictments for him and his wife for supporting terrorism, they decided to flee with their children. “We understand they would not give us any freedom,” he said. “But we were confident we did nothing wrong.”
His wife was pregnant and, terrified of going to a hospital for fear of arrest, she gave birth to their fourth child in their living room with help from a nurse. She stayed silent, worrying neighbors would call police if they heard noise.
“Seven hours of labor. She didn’t scream or yell or anything,” said Atik, tearfully remembering the day Yusuf, now 1½, was born.
Atik arrived in the United States a year ago and has been granted asylum. He works part-time at the Turkish Community Center in Clifton, which helped him find a second job at a cellphone repair shop. Several times a week, he takes English lessons at Bergen Community College and at the Crossroads Church in Clifton.
Life in the U.S. has been "very hard," he said, as he described struggling to pay rent and send money to his family in Greece. But on Tuesday, he said the United States approved his request for family reunification. He expects they will arrive in a month.
"I intend to live in peace in this country," he said. "I want to live together with my family in this country. I want my children to learn English and get good education."
‘My neighbors didn’t greet me back’
Tugba, 37, did not want her last name used for fear of retaliation against her family in Turkey. She was born in Russia and moved to Turkey in 2004 after she married her husband Faruk. An English teacher, her school was closed when Erdogan declared a state of emergency after the coup.
The worst part, she said, was the isolation she and her family faced as authorities singled out Hizmet as a terrorist movement. The landlord kicked them out and some relatives stopped calling.
“Kids from the neighborhood stopped playing with my children,” said Tugba, who lives in Garfield. “My neighbors didn’t greet me back. It hurts when you feel everyone turns your back to you and your family.”
Her husband, a principal of a Hizmet school, had a tourist visa and fled to the United States. Tugba, as a Russian citizen, was able to leave via her home country and eventually came to the U.S. in 2018 via the Mexican border.
Faruk, whose asylum has been approved, works delivering goods for a bakery. Tugba's asylum was approved last week.
Tugba's children, ages 5 and 10, go to public school in Garfield. Her oldest, 15, a student at a local charter school, is a talented artist who hopes to study animation in college. She showed a sketch she had drawn of a faceless woman, sitting in the corner of a room clutching her child, inspired by their struggles in Turkey.
American immigration courts may grant asylum to people who prove they face persecution in their homelands based on race, religion, nationality or social or political affiliations.
The State Department's Turkey 2018 Human Rights Report says authorities dismissed or suspended more than 130,000 civil servants, arrested or imprisoned more than 80,000 citizens, and closed more than 1,500 civic groups on terrorism-related grounds after the coup attempt.
From CEO to Uber driver
In Clifton, a 59-year-old businessman showed photos during a recent interview of himself and Turkish officials who gave him awards and commendations as the owner of a manufacturing company and a philanthropist.
But the climate grew tense after a corruption investigation in 2013 that targeted Erdogan’s inner circle. Erdogan blamed his one-time ally, Gulen. In December 2015, two intelligence officers visited the businessman in his office and asked him to take a side and hold a press conference denouncing Hizmet.
Fearing arrest, he flew to the United States on New Year’s Day, when he knew police staffing would be sparse.
“I took the earliest flight I could take, and I came here. My heart was beating fast until the plane left Turkish airspace,” he said in an interview at a Clifton cafe and bookstore where Turkish coffee and food were on the menu and pro-Gulen books lined the shelves.
He asked to withhold his name for his family’s sake. His sons have faced police searches and questioning since he left, the man said.
“Erdogan demonized anybody where their affiliation is well known,” said the former businessman, who has been granted asylum in the United States. “I tell my sons, just live on. Bring home the bread and nothing more.”
Today, he drives an Uber to pay bills and speaks with family back home on Facetime. “My granddaughter doesn’t understand,” he said. “She asks me, ‘Why aren’t you coming back?’”
At home in New Jersey
Turkish asylees have been drawn to northern New Jersey because of its long-standing Turkish-American community with cultural centers, organizations, stores and restaurants, and because they have family here already.
Nearly 194,000 people of Turkish ancestry live in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, including about 17,000 in New Jersey. Turkish American organizations estimate a higher figure of at least 350,000.
New Jersey also is home to Gulen followers and organizations, including Peace Islands Institute, which promotes inter-religious understanding. The Alliance for Shared Values, which speaks for Gulen, has an office in Clifton and its president lives in New Jersey.
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Courtney Madsen, director of the Jersey City office of Church World Service, which aids refugees and asylees, said that out of 273 clients last year, 56 were Turkish. They made up 20% of clients, up from 6% one year earlier, and are now the third-largest group after Egyptians and Cubans.
The jump in Turkish clients was so significant that Madsen hired an interpreter. Typically, asylum seekers come from varied economic and educational backgrounds, but in this case, they were mainly professionals including lawyers and engineers, she said. The emigres have settled in Passaic County, Jersey City and Edgewater.
Advocates are also lobbying elected officials to push for change, but the political climate is volatile. Kaval, a former CEO of Peace Islands Institute, worries Trump might acede to Erdogan's demands to return Gulen to Turkey — a request the U.S. Department of Justice previously denied.
Until the situation changes, asylees like Tugba are finding a new home in New Jersey and trying to make others feel welcome as well.
Tugba said she recently brought dinner to a family who moved to her neighborhood eight months ago. The husband had been jailed, and his wife still felt afraid.
"She asked me, 'Are you able to speak freely? Are you able to tell people you're from Turkey?' I told her, yes, it's free here. I told her she shouldn't be afraid," she said.
This story has been updated to reflect the correct name of The Alliance for Shared Values.
Email: adely@northjersey.com